Image of Mount Lu

This painting got its name from the poem line “write out Wulao Peak of Mount Lu” by Ke Jiusi in Yuan Dynasty. Because of the words "genuine masterpiece by Jing Hao" written by Emperor Song Gangzong on the right upper side of the painting, it was considered as the work of Jing Hao. Jing Hao was an artist of the Five Dynasties period at the end of Tang Dynasty. As scholar-official, his works depicted high mountains and lofty hills with equal attention to pen and ink, and later he was known as the master of northern landscape painting style. There is a book named Brushwork said to be written by Jing Hao, which is considered as the most important theoretical work on Chinese early landscape paintings. In this paining, the prospect is a slope, with layers of rocks and peaks rising from the left relying on a cliff path. From left to right, top to bottom and the near to the distant, it guides audiences’ sights to the main peak in the distance. The grand and lofty peak is just like a monument standing in the deep mountains and the end of the path and the whole view. From the very beginning, Chinese landscape paintings were relevant to reclusive spirit. The name of the painting " Mount Lu" originates from the allusion of Kuang Yu’s seclusion in Mount Lu in Shang and Zhou Dynasties. We may take the mountains in this painting as a symbol of seclusion and the path as a spiritual way to the destination.