Hsiao Chao (twelfth to thirteenth century)

Original: Hanging scroll, ink and. color on silk, 179.3x112.7 cm

The landscape scenery is composed of towering multifaceted cliffs with ancient trees clinging to steep ridgetops and filling deep ravines between. In the lower reaches of the view, a fishing boat is moored alongside a jutting sandbar. The artist's signature appears on the face of a rocky cliff. Hsiao Chao's paintings are quite rare; this is the only work by his hand in the Palace Museum.

Hsiao Chao was a painter at the court of Emperor Kao Tsung. Early in life, he had some training in calligraphy and painting. When the Northern Sung dynasty collapsed after the great invasion of the Chin tribesmen, he escaped to an outlaw band in the Taihang mountains. There he captured the great court painter, Li T'ang, then a refugee fleeing from the fallen capital of Kaifeng. Having found out that his captive was a man not of fortune, but of talent, he set him free, followed him to the South, became his disciple, and learned all the secrets of the art of his teacher. Hsiao Chao's landscapes and figures, pines and rocks were all considered excellent. Later the former bandit was appointed as a court painter.