Figures in a Mountain Landscape

Viewing notes

A viewer's written impression — not a buyer review or first-hand record

This silver-grey group unfolds horizontally like a handscroll made solid. A pointed arch of a frame, its edge hung with flame motifs and small pendants tier upon tier, gathers the whole scene into a single complete shrine. Within it, mountains rise in ranges, water winds around, and pavilions dot the slopes, while six figures stand upon cloud-rocks and watery islets: armoured guardians with wrathful eyes at either side, one figure at the centre raising a banner high, and at the front, left and right, two serene bodhisattvas whose drapery and ribbons are carved continuous with rock, cloud and stream. A single silver-grey tone does all the work — no colour at all; distance and emphasis are told purely by the density and depth of the carving. Detail everywhere up close, one whole landscape from afar. A group of this scale is made to be enshrined entire on the main wall of a hall, or to stand as the commanding scene of a room — a complete world of its own.