Cleveland Museum of Art exhibition "Demons, Ghosts, and Goblins in Chinese Art" 2024-2025. Southern Song Dynasty - Yuan Dynasty 1200s-1300s Private Collection
[Personal Comments: This Handscroll depiction of the topic of “Searching the Mountains” is very rare in Chinese painting, this being one of the earliest known examples of such a topic. Currently known example from the Southern Song Dynasty of this topic is either the sketch pages in the Cleveland Museum or a partial colored scroll in the Palace Museum. This scroll seems to have never been publicly shown or known. The way the demon and dragon faces are drawn is very similar to the way the dragon faces are drawn in the “Nine dragons” topic that is popular in the Southern Song/Yuan Dynasty. The difference in Erlang Shen (二郎神) cloth (In military armor or a civil official cloth) from the other two Southern Song painting of the topic needs to be noted. Furthermore, the detail of each scene and how they are arranged is somewhat different than all other copy, which seems to suggest this scroll as either an earlier example or an adaptation. Lastly, this scroll lacks prominent seals, which is odd for such a high quality work. ]
克利夫兰艺术博物馆特展 "Demons, Ghosts, and Goblins in Chinese Art" 2024-2025. 南宋代-元代 私人收藏
[个人说明:此件手卷为私人收藏,克利夫兰艺术博物馆并未在其官网对此藏品有介绍或照片。此件纯属当场的意外之喜。本人查阅中文/英文互联网关于 “搜山图”的历代作品,此卷似乎并未被收集且未发现有此卷的照片流传。此卷似乎是首次公开展出,但介于克利夫兰艺术博物馆的冷门性并未得到任何关注。首先根据官方介绍此件为南宋/元代,目前已知的南宋搜山图”题材的仅有克利夫兰艺术博物馆白描残页和北京故宫的设色绢本残本。此卷绘画风格和场景与二者不同,有可能此卷是更早期的版本。此卷的卷边有明显的水渍和破损,和裱不符。此卷应该有过重新装裱,不排除可能目前的卷是被裁切过。]