Landscape has been the dominant subject in Chinese painting ever since it emerged as the pre-eminent art form of the Northern Sung period (960-1127). The recent acquisition by the Metropolitan Museum, as a gift of the Dillon Fund, of a superb large Northern Sung handscroll, Summer Mountains , provides the opportunity to consider in some detail the landscape art of this period, together with its antecedents and later permutations. Developing during the war-filled years of the tenth century, Northern Sung landscape ...
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Landscape has been the dominant subject in Chinese painting ever since it emerged as the pre-eminent art form of the Northern Sung period (960-1127). The recent acquisition by the Metropolitan Museum, as a gift of the Dillon Fund, of a superb large Northern Sung handscroll, Summer Mountains , provides the opportunity to consider in some detail the landscape art of this period, together with its antecedents and later permutations. Developing during the war-filled years of the tenth century, Northern Sung landscape painting produced timeless images that were followed and imitated for centuries. This art reached its apogee in the third quarter of the eleventh century. After the fall of the Northern Sung, it continued to be popular in the north, both under the Chin tartar and then the Mongol rule during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the meantime the painters of the Southern Sung (1127-1276), south of the Yangtze River, developed a simplified style that described the softer landscapes of the south. There were three revivals of the Northern Sung grand manner in landscape painting, the first during the Y???an period (1277-1368), when the Mongols dominated the whole of China, the second in the fifteenth century, after the Ming overthrew the Mongols, the third at the turn of the eighteenth century, in the early Ch'ing (Manchu) period. Although landscape painting during the Y???an period and afterward was essentially different from that of the Northern Sung, it continued to evoke motifs and themes made popular by the Northern Sung masters. Traditionally attributed to Yen Wen-kuei, a painter active about 980-1010, the Metropolitan Museum's Summer Mountains is, instead, as work in Yen's style, probably painted about 1050. But since Yen's style remained influential for centuries, an analysis of the Yen Wen-kuei tradition becomes a capsule account of the development of Chinese landscape painting between 1000 and 1700. As one attempts to date the many works in the Yen Wen-kuei tradition, it is necessary to keep in mind the following: When a painter works in the manner of an older master, he first adopts the characteristic brushwork idioms, the form elements, and the compositional motifs. But in expanding his interpretation and giving it new articulation, he necessarily deviates from the original and makes subtle changes. In short, the later painter shows in his work not the real earlier master but a transformed image of him. These changes are not slips of hand or misunderstandings; instead, they are positive signs of the later painter's own style. Even a more or less mechanical copy, which, in the absence of the original work may be historically useful in reconstructing it, inevitably reveals something of its own time. [This book was originally published in 1975 and has gone out of print. This edition is a print-on-demand version of the original book.] Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press
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Add this copy of Summer Mountains: the Timeless (Chinese) Landscape to cart. $15.43, very good condition, Sold by Jenson Books Inc rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Logan, UT, UNITED STATES, published 1979 by Metropolitan Museum of Art New York.
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Very good. A well-cared-for item that has seen limited use but remains in great condition. The item is complete, unmarked, and undamaged, but may show some limited signs of wear. Item works perfectly. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine is undamaged.
Add this copy of Summer Mountains: the Timeless (Chinese) Landscape to cart. $18.75, very good condition, Sold by Michael Knight, Bookseller rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Forest Grove, OR, UNITED STATES, published 1975 by Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Add this copy of Summer Mountains: the Timeless (Chinese) Landscape to cart. $31.00, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1975 by Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Add this copy of Summer Mountains: the Timeless (Chinese) Landscape to cart. $46.08, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1975 by Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Add this copy of Summer Mountains: the Timeless Landscape to cart. $50.00, very good condition, Sold by Sutton Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Norwich, VT, UNITED STATES, published 1979 by Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975.
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Very good. Hbk folio in slipcase unpaginated profusely illustr throughout slipcase rubbed at extremities with some losses to the paper at the edge of the spine but it has done its protective work and the book itself remains excellent clean tight and unmarked.
Add this copy of Summer Mountains: the Timeless Landscape to cart. $53.16, good condition, Sold by Midtown Scholar Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Harrisburg, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2013 by Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Good-Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name-GOOD Oversized. PAPERBACK.
Add this copy of Summer Mountains, the Timeless Landscape to cart. $65.00, very good condition, Sold by My Book Heaven rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Alameda, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1975 by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Add this copy of Summer Mountains: the Timeless Landscape to cart. $87.36, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2013 by Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Add this copy of Summer Mountains: the Timeless (Chinese) Landscape to cart. $99.90, like new condition, Sold by Basement Seller 101 rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Cincinnati, OH, UNITED STATES, published 1979 by Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Add this copy of Summer Mountains: the Timeless Landscape to cart. $100.00, very good condition, Sold by Alan Wofsy Fine Arts rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from San Francisco, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1979 by New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975.
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Folio. [70 pp]. Grey cloth-covered boards with embossed front board, gilt spine and decorative slip-case. Includes yellow endpapers. Very good with marginal edgewear to slipcase. Ex-library with previous owner's (Pasquale Iannetti) stamp and lending card on inside front cover. Includes full page grey-scale illustrations. Limited edition. Heavy book, may cost more for shipping.
