The distant mountains

With this third volume in James Cahill's ongoing account of later Chinese painting it becomes even clearer what a monumental task the author has set himself and how brilliantly he is accomplishing it. Here again is proof that the remarkable achievements of Chinese art, complex as they are, can be made understandable--and enjoyable--to art lovers anywhere. And the book will be no less welcome to scholars, with its masterly summation of recent research and theory together with the original insights of one of the world's leading authorities in the field. We turn here to the fascinating but…