Mt. Taibo in the Style of Wang Meng | Cleveland Museum of Art

When a Chinese painter "imitated" a painting by a past master, the intention was never to produce an exact copy. Du Qiong, the Ming painter from Suzhou, is a case in point. The painting style of this handscroll is actually closer to that of Huang Gongwang (1269–1354) than to the style of Wang Meng (about 1301–1385). Both masters were active during the previous dynasty and are among the so-called Four Great Masters of the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368). In this painting, the interplay of styles, including Du Qiong's own, contribute to an inner dimension that is more than visual. Mt. Taibo is located in the province of Zhejiang and is known for its scenic beauty. In this scroll, however, it is not depicted literally. The image is an ideal representation of mountains in southeastern China.

The Adoration of the Magi | Cleveland Museum of Art

According to the Gospel of Matthew, three Magi, guided by a star, found the newborn Jesus and laid gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh before him. Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Tiepolo’s drawing of the traditional subject places the Madonna on a platform as she holds the Christ child out toward three approaching magi. Two bearded white magi kneel in supplication as the turbaned black magi stands behind them. Tiepolo plays with the conventions of the Adoration subject by employing an asymmetrical composition. Working over his black chalk underdrawing, traces of which are visible in the figures’ robes, the artist delineated the scene with brown ink, quill pen, and brush before modeling with brown wash. Tiepolo’s mastery over value is evident in his contrasts of dark shadow with light midtones and the luminous white of his paper, producing his celebrated effects of glistening sunlight and clear atmosphere. The broken wheel in the foreground, an attribute of Saint Catherine, also appears in Tiepolo's etching of the same subject (1965.18) to which this drawing may be related.

Women Enjoying the River at the Forest’s Edge (recto) | Cleveland Museum of Art

The image of young women at play, in association with water and the fruiting of trees, such as this mango, has been used in Indian art to signal the idea of prosperity and abundance. Rain clouds approach that will nourish the land. The pairs of women on the banks sample perfumes, and in front of them bowls made of leaves appear to hold jasmine flowers for adorning the hair. One woman smokes a hookah and looks on as two companions frolic in the rivulet. The palace’s white marble buildings are barely indicated in the far distance.

Drinking Cup from Dining Set with Plum Blossoms and Cracked-Ice | Cleveland Museum of Art

Each item in this set has a delicate low-relief design of flowering plum branches over scattered, intersecting lines meant to resemble the cracked-ice surface of a frozen body of water and is signed on the base in gold pigment. While Yohei II produced many fine works in underglaze blue, like those produced by Kiyomizu Shichibei, he also made works in quite different styles later in his career, from the early 1870s. In 1873, he was appointed purveyor to the Industrial Center of Kyoto Prefecture, a designation associated with Kyoto’s efforts to reach an international market through the port of Kobe; and from 1875 until his death, he was involved in national-level projects to present Japanese ceramics across the world. It was during this period that Yohei III was apprenticed to Yohei II, and it has been suggested that this set may in fact be an early example of Yohei III’s work, which he signed with his teacher’s name.<br><br>Decorated with flowers resembling Japanese textile motifs, the set calls to mind the design of Yohei II’s  pair of vases with plum blossoms in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Here, the elaborate trees created for a formal public exhibition setting have been translated into the approachable blossoms of the genteel domestic environment. While the designs are consistent across the pieces, each raised flower petal and pistil and each incised line in the ice was done by hand, so the cups, bowls, and dishes are similar yet unique. <br><br>The bottoms of two boxes once identified the set’s owner, but the information has been deliberately obscured with black ink. However, inscriptions still visible appear to indicate two occasions, once at the end of July 1886, and once again in June 1916, when parts of the set were requested from Hokura in Niigata Prefecture. The location corresponds to a neighborhood in the present-day city of Jōetsu. The surname Tsuji 辻 also appears on a paper tag affixed to one of the box cloths. Future research may possibly reveal more about their provenance. A vase by Yohei III in a private collection combines the formal grandeur of the Yohei II vases in the Victoria and Albert Museum with the gentler design of this dining set, placing flowering plum trees against soft, scalloped-edge clouds resembling those in golden screens.

A Selection of Twenty of the Most Picturesque Views in Paris: View of Bell Vue and Pont de Sêve taken from the Terrace near Pont de St. Cloud | Cleveland Museum of Art

Sword Guard Tsuba) with Bamboo and Cloud | Cleveland Museum of Art

Textile Fragment | Cleveland Museum of Art

This fragment, one of several in the collection, is a rare survivor of catastrophic rains that destroyed much of the Moche textile legacy and may have helped to bring about the decline of Moche culture. It depicts a serpent and a snail beneath a hovering raptorial bird—perhaps a snail kite, a type of hawk named after its favored food. The size of the motifs implies that the original textile was large; a mantle (a shawl-like garment) or a hanging are among the possibilities.

The Monastery of San Pedro (Our Lady of the Snows) | Cleveland Museum of Art

Although the location that inspired the painting has been subject to scholarly debate, many believe it derives from Church’s travels through the Ecuadorean Andes nearly a quarter century earlier. The composition reads as an allegory of spiritual salvation: perched atop a dramatic cliff, a brilliantly backlit monastery overlooks a shadowed foreground where a solitary figure navigates a rugged path.