This album is a landscape painting, the Chinese picture made to be unrolled or unpinned a section at a time rather than seen all at once. the Song painter’s hand that made it assumed a viewer in motion.
A handscroll rewards the journey; The landscape subject is the excuse. What the Song dynasty (960-1279 CE) painter sold was a way of looking, disciplined and unhurried.
Song taste prized restraint and a quiet surface, and the court’s connoisseurship set the standard that later dynasties measured themselves against.
A album like this was made to be handed on, not framed forever. The landscape painting still asks you to slow down, which is the whole point.
Object details
| Name | Landscape painting album (董诰仿宋元山水册) |
|---|---|
| Artefact no. | 故00009292-8/8 |
| Technique | Landscape painting (山水) |
| Period | Song dynasty (960-1279 CE) |
| Collection | The Palace Museum, Beijing |
| Source | Palace Museum Digital Collection (数字文物库) |
Image © The Palace Museum. View the original in the Palace Museum Digital Collection.