Gibbons Reaching for the Moon
1600s
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink and light color on silk
- Dimensions
- 170 × 33.9 cm
- Status
- In Museum Collection
- Collect24 Art ID
- C24-116438
Long-armed gibbons form a chain to reach down from a tree, hoping to touch what they believe is the moon. In fact, the orb remaining beyond their grasp is the full moon’s reflection in the still surface of a pond or lake. The image is a common metaphor for the deluded mind in Buddhist thought. Gibbons do not live in Japan but were known to Japanese painters of the premodern era through paintings brought from China.
Provenance
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift from the Collection of George Gund III, 2015.478
Registry history
- 1600s — Recorded in the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
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