COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
Record
AMICA ID:
AIC_.1965.391
AMICA Library Year:
1999
Object Type:
Paintings
Creator Name:
Qian, Feng
Creator Nationality:
Asian; Far East Asian; Chinese
Creator Dates/Places:
Chinese; 1740-1795 Asia,East Asia,China
Creator Name-CRT:
Qian Feng
Title:
Piled Up Strange Peaks
Title Type:
preferred
View:
full view
Creation Date:
Qing Dynasty (1644 -1912); 1740-1795
Creation Start Date:
1740
Creation End Date:
1795
Materials and Techniques:
Hanging Scroll. Ink on paper.
Classification Term:
Hanging Scroll
Subject Description:
Qian Feng served as an official under the Qianlong emperor. Better known as a painter of horses, Qian's landscapes are rare. A usually conservative painter who worked in an eighteenth century version of the Ming Wu School style, Qian Feng created in this scroll a mountain landscape full of strange peaks and precariously perched boulders, seemingly on the verge of collapse. The artist's poem reads:Steep hills thrusting, wanting to rub the sky,Streams flowing, again clear and shallow.The forest is lush, the mountain scenery deep,Waves ripple, sometimes exposing the sands.Trees shine, contending with the tranquil deep,Cloud-like thoughts extend, like a scroll unrolling.Heaven and Earth in a single painting,It allows one, exhausted, to ogle and stare. The contrast between the imagery of the poem and the twisted forms of the landscape, and the placement of a solitary hut in the center of this fantastic scene, may reflect Qian Feng's own self-image. Through much of his career Qian served as a censor, whose job it was to report corruption and malfeasance directly to the throne. In the late Qianlong period he denounced several members of the clique of Heshen, the emperor's favorite, and as a result was often under political attack. Although one can only speculate, the strange contrasts and discontinuities in this painting may reflect some of Qian Feng's own experience in a dangerous political mileau. (S. Little, 1999)
Creation Place:
Asia,East Asia,China
Dimensions:
121.9 x 31.1 cm.48" h. x 12 1/4" w. exclusive of mounting.
AMICA Contributor:
The Art Institute of Chicago
Owner Location:
Chicago, Illinois, USA
ID Number:
1965.391
Credit Line:
The Art Institute of Chicago, Russell Tyson Endowment Fund
Related Image Identifier Link:
AIC_.E30741.TIF
