Eighteen Views of Huzhouc. 1588
By the 1500s, visits to historic and scenic sites in the lower Yangzi delta stimulated an increase of printed illustrated travel books. Topographical depictions of local scenery flourished. More about this work
About this work
By the 1500s, visits to historic and scenic sites in the lower Yangzi delta stimulated an increase of printed illustrated travel books. Topographical depictions of local scenery flourished. Leaves from this album illustrates sites around Lake Tai of the two adjacent counties Changxing and Wuxing (modern Huzhou). Song Xu, who lived intermittently in Jiaxing and Songjiang, must have passed through Wuxing by boat and thus knew the region. The paintings are inscribed with gazetteerlike notations, suggesting that the album was produced for clients as commemorative works, a travel guide, or for “armchair travel” ( woyou ) in one’s mind.
Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
How it was made
- Album leaf
- A page from an album, meant to be held and looked at closely, one opening at a time.
- Ink and colour on silk
- Silk was sized with glue and alum so it would hold a crisp brushline, and mineral colours were built up in thin layers. The sheen of the weave still shows through.
Chinese painting
Ink and colour on silk and paper, from imperial courts to scholars' retreats.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Cleveland Museum of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1998.78
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Chinese Art
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
