Landscape of the imagination

Exhibition shows navigation of styles that reached a peak during the Song Dynasty but also influenced later artists, Lin Qi reports.

Spring has descended on Hangzhou, Zhejiang's provincial capital, which is often referred to as a heavenly city on Earth. Sprouting plants and blooming flowers have invigorated the scenery at the West Lake, one of the most popular scenic spots in the country. The casual drizzle and rising mist from circling mountains add nothing but a poetic touch to the landscapes. Inside the nearby Art Museum of the China Academy of Art, the exhibition halls are also bustling with visitors, who line up patiently to get a brief view of a dozen classical landscape paintings, enabling them to see how the scenery of the West Lake and its neighboring areas looked several centuries ago.

Embrace the Landscape, an exhibition running through to Sunday, brings together 37 paintings and calligraphic works from the Song (960-1279) to the Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, from the collections of several important museums around the country, navigating an artistic tradition that reached a peak during the Song Dynasty and has influenced artists of later periods. A digital version of the exhibition has been developed so that people can take a high-definition tour of it anytime, anywhere.