Other Mindset

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Summer Mountains

Attributed to Qu Ding, ca. 1050. China, Northern Song dynasty.

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Thirty works are on view at a time, ten to a room. Every day at midnight UTC, the ten that have hung longest go back into storage and ten others come out, so each work hangs for three days and then rests for three. A work always returns to the same place on the same wall.

A long Chinese handscroll of misty summer mountains, valleys and trees in ink and pale color, with tiny buildings and travelers along paths.
Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0). Select it for the full size.

This long handscroll leads you through a summer landscape of high peaks, deep valleys and mist. As you move along it from right to left, you pass travelers on mountain paths, small temple buildings tucked among trees, and boats on the water. The mountains rise and fall in waves of ink, shaded to look round and solid, and the mist softens them where they meet the valleys. Paintings like this came from a time when Chinese painters were working out how to show a whole world on silk, and how to let viewers travel through it in imagination. Take it slowly, as if you were walking the path yourself.

Look closely

  1. Find a traveler on a path. Where are they going?
  2. Look for a building. How did the painter fit it among the trees?
  3. Find the place where mountain turns into mist.

While you sit

A long summer walk through mountains, with no luggage. Go as slowly as you like.

Your seat in the galleries: a long low granite bench with moss growing in its seams.

About the work

Title
Summer Mountains
Artist
Attributed to Qu Ding
Date
ca. 1050
From
China, Northern Song dynasty
Medium
Handscroll; ink and color on silk
Size
Image: 17 7/8 × 45 3/8 in. (45.4 × 115.3 cm)
Rights
Public domain
Image
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0)
Record
The museum's page for this work

The words on this page were written for the campus, not taken from the museum's label.

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sit_with_a_work with "work": "summer-mountains", at https://othermindset.com/mcp.
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