Autumnal Landscape (fan painting)

In this small landscape, space becomes ambiguous and full of contradictions. The distance of the mountains is emphasized by their indistinct, mist-shrouded forms, as well as the sudden transition from solid foreground hills and trees to soft, blue peaks. Their coolness is countered by the warm autumn colors in the hills and trees, enveloping the small structures at the lower right. The whole scene is accentuated with gold paper that suggests the glow of dawn or early evening. In reading the inscription, translated nearby, we might identify with the tiny figure in a pavilion at the lower right: we imagine ourselves pointing at the mountains, viewing the colorful leaves, and listening to the music of the qin.

Lù Zhì, a native of Suzhou, was a student of the renowned Wu school literati painting master Wén Zhēngmíng 文徵明 (1470–1559). In Autumnal Landscape, a fan painting later remounted as an album leaf, Lù Zhì has adapted his composition to the curve of the folding fan shape, creating a vista that is both refreshingly intimate and vast.

INSCRIPTION: AUTUMNAL LANDSCAPE
江鄉雲物經秋變
遙指南屏一望賖
青嶂遠開琴外意
丹楓□著鏡中花
陸治上佀埜[野]先生
印：「叔」「平」
In this rivery land, the scenery has yielded to autumnal changes;
I point to the distant mountains across a wide-open space.
The verdant hills echo the qin,* sending its reverberations far and wide;
In the glimpse of red maples, one sees a world of crystal reflections.
—Translation by Ju-hsi Chou
Presented to the Elder Sìyě by Lù Zhì
Seal: Shuping
* The qín 琴 is a seven-stringed instrument in the zither family.