Landscape Experience as Visual Narrative

This study focuses on two landscape handscrolls: "Luxuriant Forests and Distant Peaks," in the Liaoning Provincial Museum and "Pavilions and Mansions by Rivers and Mountains," in the Osaka Municipal Art Museum. The investigation of the relationship of these scrolls raises two related issues toward a better understanding of the history of the landscape handscrolls in the Northern Song period. First, the Liaoning picture includes a colophon stating that the painting was originally mounted as a small folding screen. Handscrolls were intented to be viewed section by section, but landscape screens like the Liaoning picture were clearly intended so that the entire composition should be on view. The second issue concerns the functions of these paintings. A small folding screen could be a screen framing a bed or a pillow screen. Both kinds of screens were used in private quarters when resting or sleeping.