Stone Coffin Carved with Pictures of the Filial Sons Stories

The stone coffin at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas is a masterpiece of innovative composition and artistic style. Traditional subjects, like filial piety stories, blend seamlessly into a unified landscape painting. Lively human figures stand amidst mountains and forests, harmoniously arranged with trees, rocks, and rivers. The artwork creates a captivating sense of depth and features a border resembling a window to another world.

Northern Wei (386-535) Stone Carving. 62.5cm*223.5cm. Unearthed in Luoyang, Henan Province. Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, USA.

This piece is compiled from the Chinese edition of Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting by Foreign Languages Press and Yale University Press, translated by Chen Ying.