:::

Introduction

The National Palace Museum, since opening in 1965 at its new home in Taipei, has made considerable effort to expand the collection. Not only has the Museum over the years planned an acquisition budget used to make purchases of cultural artifacts to complement the holdings, it has also established a means by which to accept donations and entrustments. All those with cultural artifacts that meet the collection needs of the Museum are encouraged to donate or entrust them so that private treasures can come into public view to be shared in appreciation by society as a whole.

The gallery here is devoted to a selection of some of the finest works donated and entrusted in the past to the National Palace Museum. Allowing people to know more about and study these exceptional additions to the collection, it gives the general public an opportunity to truly appreciate cultural heritage. This selection of works include moving depictions of animals fleeing in danger and distress, an early Qing impression of scenery at Mt. Lu, derivations of the Guo Xi landscape style in popular painting, and a landscape fan painting by a woman artist of the early Republican period. The National Palace Museum hereby expresses its appreciation to the people and organizations who have unselfishly donated and entrusted their precious works for the public good and, with this exhibition, encourages others to continue doing so and make it a museum truly of and for the people.

Selections

Buddhist Narrative Painting

Anonymous, Japanese
Mounted, ink and colors on paper, 66.5 x 135.1 cm

This painting, a donation from the Ta-feng T'ang collection, is probably a fragment of a Japanese nirvana painting from the late Edo period (1603-1867). Nirvana is a term used to refer to the passing of the Buddha into a state of no rebirth, an event causing uncontrolled mourning and grief on the part of all sentient beings, human and animal alike. In Japan, illustrations of this scene are usually displayed on the fifteenth of February, the date observed for the Buddha's passing. This subject, with a long history of representation in the arts, makes it possible to identify this piece as the lower part of a nirvana scene. It depicts Ananda, a principal disciple of the Buddha, fainting from grief as guardians of the faith pound their chests in agony. All kinds of animals, even insects, arrive and mourn. This type of subject matter, however, is rarely seen in Chinese painting.

Wildfire

Hua Yan (1682-1756), Qing dynasty
Hanging scroll, ink and colors on paper, 75.8 x 27.8 cm

Hua Yan (style name Qiuyue, sobriquet Xinluo shanren), a native of Shanghang in Fujian, settled in Yangzhou after the age of fifty. He painted many different subjects and, with his unique style, became considered one of the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou."

This work, entrusted to the National Palace Museum from the Lan-ch'ien Shan-kuan collection, depicts roaring flames with a tiger fleeing for its life followed by other animals (deer, rabbit, goat, boar, and ox). Gibbons above climb on vines to form an intense closed circular composition of flames and animals. The innovative subject in this dynamic rendering perhaps also has allegorical meaning. The poetry inscribed here is found in Hua's Anthology of Freedom from Defilement, the painting done around the age of seventy.

Lotus Peak

Hu Yukun (1607-after 1687), Qing dynasty
Handscroll, ink and colors on paper, 24.1 x 100.5 cm

Hu Yukun (style name Yuanrun), a native of Jiangning (modern Nanjing), was a painter of the late Ming and early Qing period who excelled at misty scenes. Very few of his paintings have survived, and this is the only one in the National Palace Museum.

This work, a donation to the National Palace Museum by Mr. Li Shih-tseng, was painted in 1646. It depicts Lotus and Twin-sword Peak at Mt. Lu, differing conceptually from more abstracted renderings of this mountainous area. Mt. Lu is famous for its waterfalls, but this painting takes a broader view of peaks and clouds dotted with buildings and scholars. The brushwork derives from that of the Wen School and stands out for rendering the relationship between peaks and clouds. Emerging from the mist here, as a result, is an elegant beauty for a fresh and extraordinary quality.

Traveling in Autumn Mountains

Li Yin (fl. 1694-1704), Qing dynasty
Hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk, 189.6 x 97.5 cm

Li Yin (style name Baiye, sobriquet Dongke), a native of Yangzhou in Jiangsu, excelled at painting landscapes. He helped found the "ruled-line" school of beautifully majestic landscapes in Yangzhou during the early Qing period.

Mr. Huang Chun-pi donated this scroll to the National Palace Museum. Deriving in method from the brush manner of the eleventh-century artist Guo Xi in the Northern Song, the painting depicts a myriad hills and valleys. From the foreground extending up and back, the peaks twist and turn in layers for a full sense of momentum. The contrast between light and dark is dramatic, the convoluted forms appearing almost sculpted. An ox cart train makes its way on the path as a camel caravan has come to rest, adding rich details that hark back to the idea of Song dynasty painting. Impressed on the painting is a seal for "Chen Yin (Your servitor Yin)," indicating it was probably done when Li was serving Beijing nobility.

Exhibit List

Title
Artist
Period
Note

Buddhist Narrative Painting

Anonymous

Japanese

Donation from the Ta-feng T'ang collection

Landscape

Anonymous

Donated by Chi Hsing-fu

Lotus Peak

Hu Yukun (1607-after 1687)

Qing dynasty

Donated by Li Shih-tseng

Wildfire

Hua Yan (1682-1756)

Qing dynasty

Entrusted from the Lan-ch'ien Shan-kuan collection

Traveling in Autumn Mountains

Li Yin (fl. 1694-1704)

Qing dynasty

Donated by Huang Chun-pi

Imitation of Hua Yan's "Wildfire"

Lu Hui (1851-1920)

Qing dynasty

Donated by Lin Cheng-tao

Landscape

Wu Shujuan (1853-1930)

Republican period

Donated by Lin Tsung-yi