Forbidden City >> Exhibition Galleries >> Gallery of Paintings
Gallery of Paintings of the Forbidden City
The Gallery of Paintings is located in the Hall of Military Glory on the west of the Three Front Halls.
The Palace Museum has 140,000 pieces of paintings in its collection, including famous paintings of various times. The exhibits in the Gallery of Paintings system-atically show the development and achievement of ,f the ancient Chinese calligraphy and paintings.
There are works of the earliest well-known painters, Gu Kaizhi’s Nymph of the Luo River (Luo Shen Fu Tu) and Ladie.s ‘Benevolence and Wisdom (Lie Nv Ren Zhi Tu) in the Eastern Jin Dy-nasty (317-420). Han Huang’s Five Oxen (Wu Niu Tu) is the most reliable authentic work of the Tang dynasty y (618-907).Zhang Zeduan ‘ s Going up the Bian River on Qingming hg Festival (Qing Ming Shang He Tu) is the most famous long scroll of all times. Li Di’s Hawk and Pheasant (Feng )7ng Zhi Ji Tu)：）is the largest hanging scroll of flower-and-bird paintings in the Song dynasty (960-1279). Wang Ximeng’ s A Thousand Li Li of Rivers and Mountains (Qian Li Jiang S’han Tu), the Northern SoSong dy-nasty (960-1127), is the most splendid blue_andgreen landscape painting. Together with other representative works S of the grand masters of different schools, these paintings are the essence of the tradition of ancient Chinese paintings. In the collection of calligraphy, there is the earliest masterwork, Lu Ji’ s A Consol_ing Letter (Pingfu Tie) of the Western Jin dynasty (265-316).Wang Xun’ s To Boyuan (Boyuan Tie) in the Eastern Jin dynasty (317-420) is the only authentic work of the Three Rare Trea-sures of the Qianlong emperor. Feng Chengsu’ s Prologuefor the Gathering at Orchid Pavilion (Lan Ting Xu) in the Tang dy-nasty (618-907) is the copy most close to Wang Xizhi’s work.Eulogy of Launching the Campaign (Chu Shi Song) of the Sui Dynasty (581-618), which disappeared for 60 years and reap-peared in 2003, was the most costly calligraphy ever acquired by the Palace Museum. Mi Fu’s Yan Shan Ming (lnscriptions on HiH-Shaped Ink Stone) in the Song dynasty (960-1279) and the en Odes (Shi Yong Tu) as the only authentic work left by Zhang ian of the Song dynasty (960-1279) are also rare works of art. In the exhibition, you can find many Palace Books printed in the Hall of Military Glory. It is the first time for these books to be shown to the public. You can also find here the history of the Qing court’s activity in compiling, collecting and printing books.
Gallery of Treasures
Gallery of Clocks and Watches
Gallery of Paintings
Gallery of Bronzes
Gallery of Ceramics
Gallery of Jade
Gallery of Enamel and Cloisonne
Gallery of Court Operas