Painting in National Palace Museum, Song dynasty part1

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. You will find a variety of different pieces, such as Strange Peaks and Myriad Trees, River Boats and Mountain Town, The Buddha Preaching the Law, Preparing Clothes, The Ladies' Book of Filial Piety (Scroll 1), Literary Gathering, Scroll of Buddhist Images, Plants and Insects in Autumn, Reading in an Open Hall, and Strange Peaks and Myriad Trees. These works of art provide us with a unique insight into the culture and customs of this time period. Come take a look at these incredible artifacts today!

1. Strange Peaks and Myriad Trees

This painting depicts the scenery of high mountains with distant peaks that appear above clouds and a rising foreground enveloped in the mist. The three groups of mountain forms skillfully echo each other, and the blank areas of clouds and mist highlight them further. Despite the small size of the painting, it nonetheless gives the effect of a broad and vast vista.

2. River Boats and Mountain Town

This painting depicts two peaks rising to encircle a town with a mountainside temple and countryside shops here and there. The temple buildings are on a level outcropping and constructed up the slope. The valley below is filled with clouds and mists as birds fly about, conveying the sense of a scene at dusk.

3. The Buddha Preaching the Law

The painting depicts the Buddha seated with legs crossed on a lotus pedestal, on either side a heavenly king as protectors of the Buddhist law, the great disciples Ananda and Mahakashyapa, and a bodhisattva making offerings. The Buddha has long eyebrows and delicate eyes for a refined yet majestic appearance, while the two heavenly kings wear armor and brandish a sword and lance to convey their fierce martial spirit. The figures in the painting all vary in terms of expression, each of them true to life.

4. Preparing Clothes

This work, done in 1240, is based on "Poetry on Preparing Clothes" by Xie Huilian (397-433) of the Southern Dynasties period. Painted solely in "baimiao" lines of light ink, it depicts 32 women preparing for winter by making clothes for their husbands at the battlefront. Proceeding in sequence, they pound the silk, cut it into pieces, sew them together, and then pack to send the clothes. TITLE: ORIGINAL_TEXT: SUMMARY: This work, done in 1240, is based on "Poetry on Preparing Clothes" by Xie Huilian (397-433) of the Southern Dynasties period. Painted solely in "baimiao" lines of light ink, it depicts 32 women preparing for winter by making clothes for their husbands at the battlefront. Proceeding in sequence, they pound the silk, cut it into pieces, sew them together, and then pack to send the clothes.

5. The Ladies' Book of Filial Piety (Scroll 1)

The Ladies' Book of Filial Piety was written by Madame Zheng, the wife of Houmo-Chen Miao, during the Tang dynasty (618-907). It deals with propriety and piety as well as rules of behavior on the part of women. Originally composed of eighteen sections, this handscroll only has half of them remaining.

6. Literary Gathering

This painting depicts a group of scholars in a garden by a pond enjoying a banquet. The figures are all spirited and elegant with clear expressions, while the objects and garden motifs are painstakingly rendered. Judging from the inscriptions by Huizong and his minister Cai Jing at the top of the painting, it may be surmised that the contents are related to the historical event of the Eighteen Scholars depicted in "Ascending to the Isles of Immortality" in the Tang dynasty (618-907).

7. Scroll of Buddhist Images

This is the only surviving painting from the Dali kingdom, in what is now Yunnan and roughly concurrent with the Song dynasty. The colophon at the end of the scroll indicates it was completed during the Lizhen reign between 1172 and 1175, Zhang Shengwen being the principal artist. The painting is divided into four sections. The first one features Duan Zhixing, emperor during the Lizhen reign, making offerings to the Buddha, followed by one with hundreds of Buddhist figures, then one of canopied pillars for Sanskrit texts on protecting the kingdom and the Heart Sutra, and the last one of kings of sixteen kingdoms

8. Plants and Insects in Autumn

Li Di was active from the Northern to Southern Song period as a court artist in the Painting Academy. He specialized in bird-and-flower, insect-and-grass, and dog-and-cat subjects, being an outstanding painter at the early Southern Song court in bird-and-flower and rock-and-bamboo themes. This small work shows the leafy tips of some plants, on which a praying mantis raises its forelimbs in an apparent attempt to catch a beetle that has just flown away before becoming its next meal.

9. Reading in an Open Hall

This painting depicts the corner of a courtyard by the water among hills and decorated with lake rocks, the scenery surrounded by tall pines and delicate bamboo to create an idyllic scholarly residence. Inside the pavilion is a daybed with a screen and hanging scrolls as well as books, a porcelain vase, and an incense burner on a table; a scholar is seated thereupon holding a feather fan and leaning on an armrest in a leisurely manner. Two ladies stand by a railing at the left as two young attendants on the right bring tea on their way to the pavilion.

10. Strange Peaks and Myriad Trees