Yuan Dynasty scroll

This item appears on page 38 of the December 2010 issue.

“Dwelling in the Fu-ch’un Mountains,” a 14th-century, 22½-foot-long and one-foot-tall Chinese scroll painting, was the magnum opus of Yuan Dynasty painter Huang Gongwang.

Almost 200 years after the artist’s death, the scroll’s owner, feeling his death imminent, decided he would “take it with him” and began to burn the scroll. The man’s nephew saved it, but it was torn in two. The two pieces have been exhibited separately, the left side in Taiwan’s National Palace Museum and the shorter, right side in Beijing, China, at the Zhejiang Museum.

In the exhibit “Landscape Reunified,” the entire painting will be displayed June through September 2011 in Taiwan along with other works by Huang plus paintings and calligraphy on loan from mainland Chinese museums. National Palace Museum (No. 221, Sec. 2, Zhishan Rd., Shilin Dist., Taipei City 11143, Taiwan R.O.C.; phone +886 2 2881 2021, www.npm.edu.tw). Open 8:30-6:30 all year. NTD160 (near $5).