Valley and Mountains, after Zhao Boju, 趙伯駒 (Ni Zhao Qian Li, He xiang qing xia 擬趙千里荷鄉清夏),

late 17th–early 18th century

Xiao Chen appropriates the blue-green landscape mode of the earlier artist Zhao Boju (ca. 1120–ca. 1162) to construct a harmonious summer scene where people enjoy chess, appreciate lotuses, and engage in pastoral activities, such as weaving and ox-herding. The blue-green landscape style, which can be traced back to the Tang dynasty (618–907), is associated with depictions of an idealized or immortal land. While the rich mineral pigments and the flattened landforms lend the painting an archaic Tang-dynasty flavor, the gradual spatial recession, conveyed through the layers of mountains receding into the mist at the top of the painting, reflects the visual language of contemporaneous Qing-dynasty artists.

Yixu Chen, PhD candidate, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University