Landscape Album (Nine Leaves) P8
Dong Qichang, the late Ming dynasty's ultimate art theorist and painter, created this landscape leaf as part of a larger album. He famously divided Chinese art into 'Northern' (professional) and 'Southern' (literati) schools, essentially inventing the canon of Chinese painting and placing himself at the top. Here, his brushwork is dry and calligraphic, sketching rugged mountains and sparse trees that prioritize mood and structure over realism. The text on the left quotes ancient masters like Mi Fu and Zhao Mengfu to praise the piece, declaring it holds the 'universe in the hand'—a classic flex of scholarly refinement.
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