The 'living landscapes' of a Song Dynasty masterpiece

Why did ancient Chinese artists have such a deep love for landscape paintings? The answer may be found in the most acclaimed work of Fan Kuan, considered the finest painter of this genre from the Song Dynasty.

Fan was one of the most famous painters in the Northern Landscape Painting School during this period. The mountains rendered under his brushstrokes were majestic and craggy, different from those presented under the "Southern School," which used smoother lines to portray the elegant landscapes south of the Yangtze River.

In Fan's landscape painting, viewers can see a real mountain and the philosophical idea that humans, rather than ruling the world, coexist with other living creatures in nature. The idea is well embodied by his magnum opus, "Travelers Among Mountains and Streams." The cultural program "China in Poetry and Painting," produced by China Media Group, draws on innovative filmmaking techniques to create an immersive landscape. In one instance, an elderly man wearing a bamboo hat is shown encountering a caravan of donkeys while ambling along a rustic path - going above and beyond what was possible to show in the painting itself.

Collected by the Taipei Palace Museum, the work "Travelers Among Mountains and Streams" was much lauded by Chinese artist Dong Qichang during the Ming Dynasty as "the best painting from the Song Dynasty." As the 2.06-meter-high hanging scroll unfolds, the classic Chinese perspective of three planes becomes evident – far, middle, and near.