Page 159 - Chinese works of art and paintings, March 19 Bonhams

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8205
ANONYMOUS
Mountain landscape with figures, 17th
century
Framed and glazed, ink and color on silk.

71 5/8 x 28 1/8in (182 x 71.5cm)
$7,000 - 10,000

佚名 山水人物圖 設色絹本 鏡框 十七世紀

Although anonymous, this finely executed
mountain landscape with figures describes a
fascinating scene -- several scholar-officials
converge in the middle section, while a
group of hard working men are chiseling
and hammering rocks in the lower part of
the painting. It is an unusual composition as
such, and it may be illustrating the tale of Yu
the Great (c. 2200-2100 BCE) controlling the
floodwaters, a Herculean effort to tame the
Yellow River by creating irrigation canals and
lessen the destructive floods that plagued
central China.

In the collection of the National Palace
Museum Taipei, an unsigned work dated
to the Tang dynasty titled “A Painting
of the Great Yu Controlling the Waters”
(access no. 故-畫-000012-00000, Gugong
Shuhua Ji, no 44) similarly depicts people
removing rocks to reroute the waters and a
scholarly figure standing higher above with
attendants. Whereas the narrative of the Tang
composition painting provides more details, it
is likely that the same tale is being illustrated
in the present scroll.

CHINESE WORKS OF ART AND PAINTINGS | 157