Yuan people’s scroll of Yao Cen’s jade tree

This hanging scroll is a ink, the Chinese picture made to be unrolled or unpinned a section at a time rather than seen all at once. the Yuan painter’s hand that made it assumed a viewer in motion.

The subject is the excuse. What the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368 CE) painter sold was a way of looking, disciplined and unhurried.

Yuan workshops bridged Mongol court patronage and Chinese craft lineages, often bolder in colour than the dynasties on either side.

A hanging scroll like this was made to be handed on, not framed forever. The ink still asks you to slow down, which is the whole point.

Image © The Palace Museum. View the original in the Palace Museum Digital Collection.