Listening to the Qin (Zither)

A seated robed scholar plays a qin zither on a low table beneath gnarled pine branches, while a second seated figure listens across an open ground and a young attendant stands at the right. Bamboo and rocks fill the lower edge, drawn in fine ink lines with faint warm color on a round silk leaf.

Look closer: A small rock and clumps of bamboo fill the lower left corner, nearly lost in the ground.

Artist

Liu Songnian

Date

1150–after 1225

Medium

Album leaf; ink and slight color on silk

Source

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Size

3400 × 3267 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund