Strolling to a lakeside gazebo 湖亭遊覽圖

13th century

This painting is the product of an unknown court artist of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279). Beneath the summer trees, a few simply clad palace women and children stroll along the paved pathway beside a stone-lined pond. Their route leads through an elegant gazebo that may represent an actual structure in the imperial gardens of Hangzhou (in Zhejiang Province), the Southern Song capital.