Artwork Page for Landscape with a Distant Temple

Details / Information for Landscape with a Distant Temple

Landscape with a Distant Temple

遠寺山水図

1600s

Japan, Edo period

(1615–1868)
Medium
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Measurements
Overall: 195.6 x 57.2 cm (77 x 22 1/2 in.); Painting only: 107.7 x 45 cm (42 3/8 x 17 11/16 in.)
Credit Line
The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 1979.52
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

This painter emulated the style of Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506) a Japanese artist who traveled to China to study painting.

Description

A traveler has presumably descended from the distant temple compound that consists of several buildings linked together by a winding trail lined with steps. The highest point in the compound is occupied by the most sacred structure in Buddhist temple architecture: a mulitroofed pagoda. This rugged landscape, with its towering craggy peaks, pine forests, and river, typifies the idealized image of religious sanctuary in East Asian medieval ink painting.
A hanging scroll in ink on beige silk depicts a mountain landscape with dark, textured brushstrokes. In the foreground, twisted pine trees grow from rocky slopes, with a path winding toward a small pagoda. A broad body of water recedes toward a distant shore. Above, jagged rock peaks rendered with sharp, vertical outlines emerge from a thick layer of mist. Faint calligraphy is visible in the upper left corner (see "Inscriptions").

Landscape with a Distant Temple

1600s

Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

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