Landscapes in Stone: Placing Dali Marble in Ming and Qing China

Dali marble, quarried in Yunnan province in southwestern China, became something of a craze among the country’s elite in the Ming dynasty. Prized for its natural patterning resembling monochromatic ink landscapes, the stone became closely associated with the literati. By the Qing dynasty, it was evoked in court paintings produced for the emperor as a marker of the sophisticated urban cultures of the southeast.