On view
Asian Art
Huo Pavilion
Christina Lee Gallery
Huo Pavilion
Christina Lee Gallery
Searching for Demons in Mount Guankou (Guankou sou shan tu 關口搜山圖),
ca. 1500
Artist unidentified
Chinese
Ming dynasty, 1368–1644
y1982-97
With its axe-cut texture strokes and angular contour lines, this painting is a Ming-dynasty adaptation of the court style of the Southern Song (1127–1279), when the "searching for demons" theme became popular. Beginning on the right and moving leftward, ghostly soldiers tame snakes and a tiger before a seated figure dressed as a court official. This is Erlang Shen, the god of hunting, who was credited with defeating the vicious, flood-causing dragon and other demonic creatures on Mount Guankou. Other scenes illustrate soldiers battling demonic creatures, she-demons with monkey bodies, and a host of other fiendish beasts that populate the mountain forest.
Information
Title
Searching for Demons in Mount Guankou (Guankou sou shan tu 關口搜山圖)
Dates
ca. 1500
Maker
Medium
Handscroll; ink on silk gauze
Dimensions
Painting: 48.4 x 935.9 cm. (19 1/16 x 368 7/16 in.)
Painting (Frontispiece): 49.7 x 117.0 cm. (19 9/16 x 46 1/16 in.)
Colophon: 48.7 x 98.3 cm. (19 3/16 x 38 11/16 in.)
mount: 49.8 cm. (19 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of John B. Elliott, Class of 1951
Object Number
y1982-97
Place Made
Asia, China
Marks/Labels/Seals
Characters and one seal in ink on label adhered to edge of rolled scroll
Culture
Period
Materials
John B. Elliott, Class of 1951 (1928–1997); given to the Princeton University Art Museum, 1982.
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1982", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 42, no. 1 (1983): p. 50-70., p. 67
- Wen C. Fong, Images of the mind: selections from the Edward L. Elliott family and John B. Elliott collections of Chinese calligraphy and painting at the Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1984)., cat. no. 6
