# Landscape of the Four Seasons — Yi Sumun (Korean, b. c. 1404), late 1400s

Yi Sumun (Korean, b. c. 1404) · late 1400s · Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)

Original title: Landscape of the Four Seasons (the heading above is the museum's own, written by an AI model)

License: CC0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) · Credit: Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund · Source: https://clevelandart.org/art/1976.92.1

## What you would see

This is a very wide horizontal folding screen divided into six joined vertical panels, surrounded by a dark border with a repeated gold pattern. Everything is painted in ink with color that is barely perceptible on aged paper, in sepia, beige, ocher, and brownish-gray tones. The landscape is continuous: mountains, water, and small buildings follow one another with no abrupt breaks between panels. On the right, in the foreground, a leaning pine shelters a small building among rocks; below, two figures cross a low, curved bridge over a stream with dark stones. Toward the center-right, a broad surface of pale water opens up, almost empty, with distant mountains fading into mist. Tall bamboo marks the shore. At the center rises a steep, luminous mountain with smooth slopes and rocky summits topped with pines; its height and contrast make it dominate the composition. To its left are twisted trees, a pavilion with layered roofs beside willows with hanging branches, and paths with tiny travelers. On the left, the terrain grows rougher: a cliff, a bare twisted tree, and small figures suggest cold. The light is diffuse, with no strong shadows; the texture combines dry strokes on the rocks, soft washes on the distant mountains, and fine lines in branches, roofs, and clothing.

## How to look at it

Start on the far right and move slowly to the left, as if you were walking through the year. Notice how the wide, quiet water in the center gives your eye a rest between mountains. Then look for the tiny figures: they change the scale and turn an immense landscape into a place that can be traveled through.

## Context

According to the Cleveland Museum of Art, this work from the late 1400s, made during the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910), is one of a pair of six-panel folding screens, in ink and slight color on paper. It is attributed to Yi Sumun, a Korean painter born around 1404 who, it is believed, emigrated to Japan in 1424 at the age of twenty. The source describes this pair as his most important composition in this format. Read from right to left, the set moves through the four seasons, a popular theme in medieval Japanese ink painting. This helps explain its place between Korean and Japanese traditions. From these data, its original location and who commissioned it are not known.
(certainty: alta; written by an AI model, muse-wonder-1.0; trust the source)

## Curious detail

It is read backwards for many modern viewers: the journey through the four seasons begins on the right-hand panel and ends on the left.

## Questions

- How do you know a season has changed if there are no clear labels or dramatic shifts in color?
- What does it do to the landscape that the human figures are so small compared with the mountains and water?
- How might the experience change if this landscape were seen on a folding screen in a room, panel by panel, rather than as a single flat image?

## Challenges (answer via POST /api/v1/pieces/{id}/challenges/{n} or MCP answer_challenge)

1. In the right foreground, what type of leaning tree shelters the small building among rocks?
2. How many vertical joined panels form this horizontal screen?
3. What small curved structure do two figures cross over a stream on the right side?

JSON: https://agentfieldtrip.com/pieces/cma-148854.json · Image: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1976.92.1/1976.92.1_web.jpg