At present, walking into the Wenhua Hall of the Palace Museum, the "All Things and Life - Special Exhibition of Animal themed Paintings in the Palace Museum Collection" will present you with a "world of animals" in the eyes of ancient people. This exhibition is the first time that the Palace Museum has showcased a rich collection of animal themed paintings. The exhibition is divided into three units: "Hundred Birds Singing in Spring", "Hundred Beasts Dancing", and "Hundred Forms of Creatures". A total of 63 sets, totaling 117 precious works from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, have been carefully selected, spanning thousands of years and covering various categories such as birds, livestock, insects, and scales. Bird and poultry works have always been the most numerous and exquisite animal paintings, with the most complex genres and techniques. Lu Ying, a research curator at the Calligraphy and Painting Department of the Palace Museum, said that the works exhibited this time are very representative of the Palace Museum's collection. In the "Hundred Birds Singing in Spring" section, you can not only see representative works of the "Huang Family Wealth and Prosperity" style - Huang Quan's "Sketching Rare Birds" from the Five Dynasties, but also appreciate the elegant and fresh Northern Song Cui Bai's "Cold Bird" and Song Huizong Zhao Ji's "Golden Rooster and Hibiscus" scrolls, especially the Qing Dynasty Yu Sheng and Zhang Weibang's joint painting of the "Bird Manual", which is a feast for bird lovers. The "Bird Catalogue" is a collection of paintings by Qing court painters Yu Sheng and Zhang Weibang during the Qianlong period, which took 11 years to create based on the illustrations of painter Jiang Tingxi during the Kangxi period. The right page is a picture, and the left page is written in both Manchu and Han languages, including its name, place of origin, ecological characteristics, habits, etc. It also copied relevant records from classics such as "Er Ya · Shi Niao", "Shi Jing", and "Qin Jing", recording six major categories and dozens of species including singing birds, climbing birds, land birds, raptors, wading birds, and migratory birds. The first to fourth volumes are currently housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The fifth to twelfth volumes are currently housed in the Palace Museum. The "Bird Manual" originally had 360 paintings, but in the 39th year of the Qianlong reign (1774), a new ostrich (crane ostrich) was added to the palace. Emperor Qianlong regarded it as a rare bird and loved to add it to his collection. He specially wrote the "Ten Rhymes Poem" to praise it and ordered court painters to continue painting this bird in the "Bird Manual". Therefore, there are now a total of 361 paintings. In addition to local Chinese birds, there are also many foreign birds in the album. The reporter saw that the main bird in the picture is depicted using a combination of meticulous brushwork and Western painting techniques, creating a strong sense of three dimensionality; The background adopts traditional ink wash style. This makes' Bird Manual 'both authentic in Western museum painting and imbued with the beauty of traditional Chinese flower and bird painting. Compared with the scientific nature of "Bird Manual", "Beast Manual" is full of magical colors with the same author and rich variety: it depicts various beasts recorded in classics such as "Collection of Ancient and Modern Books" and "Classic of Mountains and Seas". Some are drawn based on imagination according to records, while others are truthfully depicted based on the true image of beasts. The reporter not only saw real animals such as cattle, horses and dogs, but also found mythical animals such as Xiezi, Jiuwei Fox, and some natural animals do have this animal, but what was painted as "a flying horse" - the armadillo in the painter's painting actually had a beak. At that time, the animal names were different from now, such as rhinoceros, which is called "rhinoceros" in picture books. Liulian plays with butterflies dancing constantly, while the carefree and delicate warbler sings precisely. ”In the display cabinet of the "Variety of Creatures" unit, the painting "Sketching of Butterflies and Butterflies" depicts a small rural scene of butterflies loving flowers: butterflies dance gracefully among the blooming flowers, complementing the swaying autumn flowers and withered reeds below, forming a harmonious picture of movement and stillness. Lu Ying introduced that there is no author's seal on this painting scroll. Later, according to the postscript of Dong Qichang in the Ming Dynasty, this scroll was determined to have been painted by Zhao Chang, a well-known sketch artist in the Northern Song Dynasty. After being reviewed by contemporary experts, it is believed that this painting embodies a new style of Song Dynasty sketching flowers and birds, with a high level of artistic skill. Although it may not necessarily be the work of Zhao Chang, it is indeed a treasure. If you have a special fondness for sketching works, you must go to the "Dancing with a Hundred Beasts" section to see Zhang Gui's "Divine Turtle Painting" volume from the Jin Dynasty. On the sandy beach facing the water in the lower right corner of the screen, a turtle with green algae on its back slowly crawls, stretches its neck and raises its head to exhale a mouthful of white smoke into the sky. The white smoke then gathers into auspicious clouds in the sky above, surrounding a semi hidden and semi visible red sun with a strange character in it. There is still controversy in the academic community about what this character is, mainly including the "shou" character theory and the Taoist talisman theory. The shape of the turtle in the painting is accurate, with fine lines drawn and meticulous depictions of the turtle shell and scales, demonstrating the artist's superb level of sketching from objects. Turtle, once known as the "Four Spirits" along with "Dragon, Phoenix, and Lin", is the only real reptile among the "Four Spirits". In China, the belief in the spirit turtle has a long history. It was first used as a spiritual artifact closely related to royal politics, and later worshipped as a symbol of auspiciousness and longevity. It reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty, but gradually declined since the Yuan Dynasty, and in later generations, it was only used for the purpose of longevity. In the Jin Dynasty, this type of turtle was considered a representative of good luck and auspiciousness, hence the painting was titled "Divine Turtle". Lu Ying said that although the Jin Dynasty was not as specialized as the Xuanhe Academy of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were similar exclusive painters who painted for the royal family. The signature "accompanying Zhang Gui" clearly indicated that Zhang Gui's identity should be that of a painter by the emperor's side. This "Divine Turtle Painting" is a rare and passed down copy by Zhang Gui, painted by Wang Yanliang, the King of Hailing in the Jin Dynasty. It is also one of the few Jin Dynasty paintings that has been widely circulated and has important artistic and historical value. In the exhibition hall, the "largest" animal is undoubtedly the "Ten Horses and Ten Thousand Lucky Horses" painted by Lang Shining in the Qing Dynasty, which is similar in size to a real horse. Lang Shining was an Italian who taught the techniques of European oil painting, copperplate printing, zenith painting, and focal perspective painting to Chinese court painters, forming a novel painting style of "combining Chinese and Western elements" in the Qing Dynasty court. This white horse, which occupies a giant display cabinet, is the top of the ten horses in the Forbidden City and is called Wan Jifu. The painter uses delicate brushstrokes to depict the demeanor and texture of the horse's fur, supplemented by light and shadow perspective, making the horse's muscles fully visible, lifelike, and full of power. It is reported that among the 117 works in this exhibition, 73 are recorded in the "Shiqu Baoji", many of which are presented to the audience for the first time, and many have not been exhibited for more than ten years. For art enthusiasts and professionals, many exhibits are illustrations from art history textbooks, which is a rare opportunity for close observation and learning. Of particular note is that "Bird Manual" and "Beast Manual" have broken through the conventional practice of flat display and are presented for the first time using tailor-made frame hanging arrays. It is reported that the exhibition will last until June 29th. (New Society)