With the fall of the Song Dynasty in 1279 and the subsequent dislocation caused by the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty by the Mongol conquerors, many court and literary artists retreated from social...With the fall of the Song Dynasty in 1279 and the subsequent dislocation caused by the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty by the Mongol conquerors, many court and literary artists retreated from social life. The later Yuan Dynasty is characterized by the work of the so-called “Four Great Masters.” The most notable of these was Huang Gongwang (1269–1354), whose cool and restrained landscapes were admired by contemporaries and by the Chinese literati painters of later centuries.
