Chinese Painting (Gallery 18)

Historically, China’s cultural elite considered landscape painting to be the most dignified pictorial art form, as it embodied a spiritual connection between nature and humanity. Over millennia, Chinese people worshiped gods and deities, mountains and rivers, as well as sacred sites and relics, entreating the blessings of heaven and earth. Their ritual activities were reflected in pictorial depictions that first appeared on rocks and pottery, then wood, bronze, silk, and paper.