Returning Home on a Moonlit Night

Returning late at night, a gentleman waits on horseback as one his servants raps at the gate of a rustic dwelling. Picnic boxes and a jug suggest the end of a pleasurable excursion. Bamboo surrounds the fence, and a tall spare pine with stiff needles leans above the trail. Symbolizing the qualities of hardiness and resilience, pine and bamboo are favorite tokens of the scholar-recluse indicating both his moral integrity and aloofness from the world. Swathed in a thick, luminous mist, which fills the dells and hollows, a highland brook swirls under a low bridge and ripples past the tardy travelers. Steep, looming hills and jagged peaks enclose the narrow valley. As the full moon rises over distant mountains, its slanting rays catch the angles of rocky slopes and set the mists aglow.

The artist of this painting remains unknown, but the style and content identify him as a member of the Ming dynasty Zhe school, which preserved many traditions of the former imperial painting academy under the Southern Song (1127-1279). As here, many Zhe school paintings seek to evoke a strong sense of mood or emotion and often depict the cherished cultural ideal of a retired gentleman leading a serene existence in some imagined, idyllic wilderness. Painting fills the picture surface, reinforcing the feeling of closeness and drawing the viewer into the scene. Along the rocks and crests, flamboyant brushstrokes splash and break, then softly suffuse into washes of silvery translucence.