Lecture: Chinese Scroll Painting and Curatorial Practices

Introduction

• Discussed the ritual of viewing Chinese paintings as a transition from our world to the world of the painting.
• Maxwell Hearn, soon-to-be curator of the Asian Art Department at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, specializes in Chinese scroll painting.
• The museum holds a comprehensive collection of Asian art.

The Scroll Viewing Experience

• A 14th-century painting is used to demonstrate the intimate and ritualistic experience of viewing scroll paintings.
• Scrolls are protected with silks and stored in protective boxes.
• Each element of the scroll, from its clasps to silks, enhances the viewer's physical connection to the art.

Key Features of the Scroll

1. Protection and Presentation

   • The scroll is wrapped in brocades from the 17th or 18th century.
   • Secured by woven silk ribbons.

2. Components of the Scroll

   • Ge Shui (Moat): Silk bands that symbolize crossing into the painting's world.
   • Frontispiece: Contains the artist’s name (Fang Hu Zhen Ji) and introduces the scroll.

3. Entering the Painting

   • Fang Cong Yi’s painting provides a landscape with identifiable elements like temple roofs on a peninsula.
   • Offers anchorage and a perspective for entry into the painting.
   • Transition from fine grasses to trees and vast expanses represents a scale shift.
   • The mountain’s scale suggests immense height, fostering contemplation of distance and height.

4. Themes and Artistic Intent

   • Taoist elements highlight the impermanence of the universe.
   • Transition from physical form to vaporous qi, ending the scroll with a return to nothingness.
   • The Qianlong Emperor boldly placed his seal here, interrupting contemplation.

Historical Annotations

• Hand scrolls include paper at the back; these papers are inscribed with comments.
• Annotations include titles and commentary on the painting and its artist.
• Example: The painting titled "The Cloudy Mountains" attributed to Mr. Fang Fang Hu.
• Early 15th-century commentaries provide historical context.

Contemporary Connections

• Recent inscriptions, such as one from 1949 by Wu Hufan, indicate the ongoing significance and personal connections to these works.
• Mention of C.C. Wong, the last collector, and his student (the lecturer) shows a personal link to the scroll’s history.