River Alliance of Wisconsin – River Alliance Online Auction 2010
Auction Ends: Sep 24, 2010 09:00 PM CDT

Art

Chinese Scholar's Stones

Item Number
225
Estimated Value
55 USD
Sold
15 USD to nursenice
Number of Bids
1  -  Bid History

Item Description

Add an contemplative element to your office, studio or study with these Chinese Scholar's Stones from the Linden Gallery in Door County.

 

 

Item Special Note

'Scholar's Stones


The Chinese interest in collecting rocks for religious or
aesthetic purposes can be traced back to the Han dynasty
(206 B.C.-A.D. 220) when Chinese connoisseurs began
using large stones to decorate their gardens and courtyards.
Scholars' Rocks is the most common English name given to
the small, individual stones that have been appreciated by
educated and artistic Chinese at least since the Song dynasty (960-1270).


To the Chinese scholar, these rocks represented a focus for
meditation ofreligious or philosophic principles and served
for contemplation prior to writing poems or painting.
Although most rocks resembled mountains (both famous
and imaginary), mountain ranges, overhangs and similar
natural wonders ofthe world around them, there were also
many that reminded the connoisseurs offamous people,
animals, and mythical creatures. Above all, these learned
Chinese admired the·rocks for "surfaces that suggest great
age, forceful profiles that evoke the grandeur ofnature,
overlapping layers or planes that impart depth, and hollows
or perforations that create rhythmic, harmonious patterns.


Scholars took these portable mountains into their studios
and used them for meditation and contemplation. Some were converted into utilitarian objects such as brush rests, censors or seals - but the majority were viewed as artistic creations in their own right.


Brown. Claudia "Worlds Within Worlds" The Richard Rosenblum Collection of Chinese Scholars' Rocks'

Donated By: