Cleveland Museum of Art

Landscape with Flying Geese

Ma Lin

Date: mid-1200s
Medium: Album leaf; ink and slight color on silk
Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
Department: Chinese Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

This minimalist landscape places most of the representational elements in the lower right foreground. A lone gentleman strolls along a zigzagging path by the water. With the gentleman’s staff acting as a visual cue, the viewer’s gaze is directed to geese flying over distant mountains. The scene of a marshland, with its wet and soft ground dotted with vegetation, suggests springtime in Jiangnan. Combined with the flying geese, the album evokes the poetic lines: By spring fields, geese are about to return, Under chilly waters, fish are submerging. 春郊欲回雁, 寒水正沉鱼

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