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Ancient Chinese Art

Oct 20, 2024

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.