Painting in National Palace Museum, Song dynasty part2

Welcome to the National Palace Museum's collection of paintings from the Song dynasty! Here, you can explore some of the most beautiful and intricate works of art from this period. We have a variety of different paintings on display here, including Autumn Colors among Streams and Mountains, Pair of Wild Geese on an Autumn Islet, Bamboo in Monochrome Ink, Travelers Among Mountains and Streams, Early Spring, Blue Magpie and Thorny Shrubs, Magpies and Hare, Wind in Pines Among a Myriad Valleys, Children at Play in an Autumnal Garden, and Lohan. These are all unique pieces that tell us about the culture and art of this time period. Come take a look at these incredible artifacts today!

1. Autumn Colors among Streams and Mountains

This painting has layers of rising peaks with shoals and slopes in the lower half of the composition. The peaks are rounded and shaded with washes of light ink to give the effect of misty waters, imbuing a lyrical quality to the idea of this landscape.

2. Pair of Wild Geese on an Autumn Islet

This painting shows the corner of a pond on an autumn day touched by a slight breeze. The geese are resting on a shoal surrounded and complemented by dry reeds, red polygonum, and withered lotuses. A kingfisher has just taken flight, interrupting the tranquil scene as one of the geese looks up at it, unaffected by the sudden disturbance.

3. Bamboo in Monochrome Ink

Wen Tong was gifted at poetry and prose as well as calligraphy, being also credited with inventing the genre of ink bamboo painting. This painting depicts bamboo extending into the composition from the upper left, probably growing from a cliff left unseen. The motifs, lively and realistic, testify to the period trend in Northern Song painting of grasping the underlying principles of objects.

4. Travelers Among Mountains and Streams

Fan K'uan, a native of Hua-yuan (modern Yao-hsien) in Shensi province, often traveled the area between the capital and Loyang. Although he was known for his magnanimous character, straightforward personality, and fondness of drink and the Tao, he is famous now for his landscape painting. In his early study of painting, he followed the style of the Shantung artist Li Ch'eng (919-967). Later, however, he came to realize that if he really wanted to portray the land, he had to take Nature as his teacher rather than other artists or their works After all, a personal landscape exists in nature and in the mind Fan K'uan thereupon went to Mt. Hua and secluded himself among the forests and mountains, devoting himself to observing the effects of atmospheric, weather, and seasonal changes on the scenery Contemporaries thereupon praised him for being able to commune with the mountains. This masterpiece is a testament to his skills and ideas in landscape painting. The clusters of vegetation at the top of the tall mountain here are actually distant forests clinging to a precarious perches. Running along the central axis of the scroll, the central mountain dominates the scene in a classic example of Northern Sung monumental landscape painting. The rooftops of a building complex stand out in the right middleground. By the cluster of rocks in the right foreground is a path on which a mule train makes its way. A cascade as slender as silk falls from the heights above, culminating in the stream rushing down in eddies towards the foreground. From near to far, Fan K'uan has described with realistic detail the solemn grandeur of a majestic landscape.

5. Early Spring

Kuo Hsi, a native of Wen-hsien in Honan province, served as a court painter under Emperor Shen-tsung (reigned 1068-1085). Early in his career as an artist, Kuo Hsi painted large screens and walls for major palaces and halls in the capital that had caught the attention of the emperor. Kuo was later promoted to the highest position of Painter-in-Attendance in the court Han-lin Academy of Painting. He produced many monumental landscape paintings and specialized in painting large pine trees and scenery enveloped in mist and clouds

6. Blue Magpie and Thorny Shrubs

Huang Chu-ts'ai (style name Po-luan), a native of Szechwan province, was the son of the famous bird-and-flower painter Huang Ch'uan. He followed in his father's style of outlining forms with thin brushstrokes and then filling them with colors. The paintings by the two Huangs set the standard for artistic excellence in the painting academy of the early Sung dynasty (960-1279). Huang Chu-ts'ai (style name Po-luan), a native of Szechwan province, was the son of the famous bird-and-flower painter Huang Ch'uan He followed in his father's style of outlining forms with thin brushstrokes and then filling them with colors The paintings by the two Huangs set the standard for artistic excellence in the painting academy of the early Sung dynasty (960-1279) This work is an excellent example of the balance between action and stillness Take, for example, the blue magpie in the lower section of the scroll It appears to have just jumped onto the rock as it bends down to take a drink from the stream below Despite the stillness, it suggests both the previous and future movement The forms actually in movement, however, are the sparrows above, which are fly, chirp, or gaze about The slender bamboo, phoenix-tail bracken, and clumps of grass in the foreground extend horizontally in both directions for balance and peace Therefore, this painting imparts a sense of ease and calm The magnificent blue magpie extends almost from one edge of the painting to the other, with the rest of the scene filled with a large rock and slope, thorny shrubs, bamboo, grass, and sparrows arranged along a vertical axis

7. Magpies and Hare

Ts'ui Po, a native of Anhwei province, excelled at painting Buddhist and Taoist subjects, figures, landscapes, flowers, and animals. He was especially noted for his works in the genre of birds-and-flowers. This painting depicts two magpies crying out at a solitary hare.

8. Wind in Pines Among a Myriad Valleys

Li T'ang, a native of San-ch'eng in Ho-yang, served in the Han-lin Academy of Painting under Emperor Hui-tsung (1082-1135; reigned 1101-1125) of the Northern Sung. Sometime between 1127 and 1130, after the fall of the Northern Sung in 1126, Li escaped to the south, where the government had re-established as the Southern Sung (1127-1279). There he re-entered the Painting Academy, which was set up during the period from 1131 and 1162. Li T'ang, a native of San-ch'eng in Ho-yang, served in the Han-lin Academy of Painting under Emperor Hui-tsung (1082-1135; reigned 1101-1125) of the Northern Sung Sometime between 1127 and 1130, after the fall of the Northern Sung in 1126, Li escaped to the south, where the government had re-established as the Southern Sung (1127-1279) There he re-entered the Painting Academy, which was set up during the period from 1131 and He went on to receive the title of Gentleman of Complete Loyalty and the prestigious Gold Belt He also became a Painter-in-Attendance and one of the most dominant figures in Southern Sung court painting Li T'ang's signature appears on a pale spindly background peak to the left of the central mountain in this painting It reads, "Painted by Li T'ang of Ho-yang in spring of the 'chia-ch'en' year [1124] of the Hsüan-ho Reign of the Great Sung" Here, Li T'ang has portrayed the rugged, powerful features of a mountainous scene.

9. Children at Play in an Autumnal Garden

Su Han-ch'en was a native of K'ai-feng, Honan, who specialized in painting Buddhist and Taoist figures. During the Hsuan-ho era (1119-1125) under Emperor Hui-tsung of the Northern Sung, he was a Painter-in-Attendance at the imperial academy. After the court moved south, Su resumed his position there, and, in the early Lung-hsing era (1163-1164) of Emperor Hsiao-tsung, he was praised for his Buddhist paintings, earning the title "Gentleman of Trust." Su Han-ch'en was a native of K'ai-feng, Honan, who specialized in painting Buddhist and Taoist figures During the Hsuan-ho era (1119-1125) under Emperor Hui-tsung of the Northern Sung, he was a Painter-in-Attendance at the imperial academy After the court moved south, Su resumed his position there, and, in the early Lung-hsing era (1163-1164) of Emperor Hsiao-tsung, he was praised for his Buddhist paintings, earning the title "Gentleman of Trust" In figure painting, the representation of children is recognized as one of the most difficult, especially in achieving that elusive quality of naivete. Su Han-ch'en was a master of observation and description who knew that children at play are in a state of natural ease His ability to capture the spirit and appearance of such children made him the most renowned painter in this genre Using a deft brush and delicate colors, Su has conveyed the quality of children concentrating on play These lively, adorable figures appear in a garden setting that bears blossoms of hibiscus and chrysanthemums, symbols fully conveying the sense of an autumn day

10. Lohan