The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of August 19, 2022

Miniature Mountain with Daoist Paradise

1736-95

China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Qianlong reign

(1736-95)

Green jade with brown markings

Overall: 17.5 cm (6 7/8 in.)

Anonymous Memorial Gift 1941.594

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The bearded immortal is accompanied by a servant carrying a cluster of peaches, symbols of immortality.

Description

Sizable jade boulders of mountainous landscapes were carved to represent the search for the paradise or immortals' dwellings in the mountains. This Daoist theme has fired the Chinese imagination throughout history. Believed to have spiritual and magical properties, jade has long been used in tombs and intended for preserving the corporeal body and the soul in the quest for eternity. It is recorded that Daoist practitioners drank morning dews with scraps of jade as an elixir of immortality.

Provenance
?-1941
Alice and Nellie Morris given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1941-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Oh
Citations
Hollis, Howard. "Three Ch'ien Lung Jades." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 29, no. 8 (1942): 123-124. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 123-124 www.jstor.org
Watson, William. L'Art de l'Ancienne Chine. Paris: Mazenod, 1979. Reproduced: Pl. 162
Little, Stephen. Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China : the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 10-April 10, 1988 = [Chʻien Ching]. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988. Mentioned and reproduced: cat. no. 21, p. 48
Exhibition history

Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).

Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-April 10, 1988).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1941.594