The Asian pavilions at the Met Museum are oases of quiet amid the bustle. A feeling of serenity is cultivated that makes the viewer forget he is in NYC. The Chinese Gardens exhibit currently showing fits perfectly into this atmosphere. As the museum's description notes:
"Artists were called upon not only to design gardens but also, as gardens came to be identified with the tastes and personalities of their residents, to create idealized paintings of gardens that served as symbolic portraits reflective of the character of the owner."
The paintings themselves depict a romanticized world where the sublimity of nature dominates and men appear only as tiny incidental figures, if at all. In a work such as Yuan Jiang's The Palace of Nine Perfections, from the Qing Dynasty, mythic palaces are placed among highly stylized mountains to create an effect of transcendental beauty. This painting is actually a series of hanging scrolls which, when placed side by side, becomes one of the largest works on display.
Where the exhibit really excels is in the section described as "Secluded Temples and Rustic Retreats" which contains stunning examples of Song Dynasty landscape painting, many on handscrolls. When looking at low key, almost monochromatic works such as Summer Mountains or Conversation in a Cave, the viewer is able to enter into a trancelike world that becomes almost a form of visual meditation. This tradition is carried on by later painters such as Dai Jin in Returning Home through the Snow from the Ming Dynasty.
The exhibit runs through January 6, 2013 and must be seen by anyone with even the slightest interest in Chinese landscape painting.
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