Watch on Soap2day. Shitao, one of the most skilled painters of his time, was deeply imbued with Buddhist spirituality, as he was forced to take refuge in monasteries from a very young age. His painting relies on the simplicity of line and the pure white of the paper. Here, a mountain landscape is rendered in ink on rice paper mounted on a silk scroll. Beneath the apparent simplicity of the subject unfolds a whole universe of hidden correspondences that one must learn to decipher.