Garden Rock (one of three)

The Chinese have long prized eroded rocks, especially as focal elements in traditional gardens. This grouping is intended to suggest a quiet corner in an urban garden. Although the best-known garden rocks come from Lake Tai, near Suzhou, a number of other regions also produce handsome specimens. These rocks, for example, originated in Yunnan province in southwest China. The large rock in this grouping is said to have been retrieved from an abandoned Ming-dynasty (1368-1644) garden in Suzhou. Garden rocks are usually arranged to suggest a mountainous landscape, with a tall "host" peak flanked and buttressed by smaller "guest" peaks on either side. The Chinese fascination with rocks might be compared with the modern Western interest in abstract sculpture; although one can read meaning into both rocks and abstract sculpture, each is ultimately appreciated for the beauty of its form. In rocks, connoisseurs typically admire such qualities as attenuated proportions (that recall soaring peaks), weathered surfaces (that suggest great age), forceful profiles (that reflect the grandeur of nature), overlapping layers or planes (that impart depth), and hollows and perforations (that create rhythmic, harmonious patterns). Many of these same characteristics also inform Chinese landscape painting.