Gallery: NPM Library Building, 1st Floor
Introduction
In Chinese painting and calligraphy, the purpose of mounting works of art is for the ease and convenience of appreciation and storage. Mountings can be divided into three general categories: hanging scrolls, handscrolls, and album leaves. Hanging scrolls are usually suspended on walls, often as a form of decoration in residences. Handscrolls are for works of painting and calligraphy that are horizontally oriented. When taken out for appreciation on a tabletop, handscrolls are often unrolled one section at a time from right to left. The album leaf, as the name suggests, involves mounting an individual work of art into a single page. When combined with others, they form an album, much like a book. The basic form of the album leaf can be divided into three general types:
1. "Butterfly" (Horizontal) Mounting:
Opened left or right, as in a book, another piece opposite the work is often found. Appearing like the wings of a butterfly when opened, it is also known as a "fold mounting" .
2."Push-awning" (Vertical) Mounting:
Opening the top for viewing, the work is placed in the lower section, in a format similar to a traditional window shutter pushed open vertically. This is suitable for mounting works that are wider than they are tall and also known as a "folding fan covering" .
3. "Sutra Fold" (Accordion) Mounting:
This format is so named because it was originally used for the copying and reciting of Buddhist scriptures (known as sutras). Several works of painting or calligraphy are connected together so that, after the mounting is complete, they can be laid flat and unfolded one at a time. It can then be folded back, like an accordion, to form an album.
A typical album usually consists of an even number of leaves--often in multiples of two, such as 8, 12, 16, or even more--that form a set. In general, the work of art found in an album leaf is rather small, with taller ones sometimes being mounted as a small hanging scroll and longer ones as a small handscroll. There are album leaves that are square, round, oval, and gourd-shaped, with all sorts of fan shapes also remounted as album leaves. Due to its small size, the entire scenery in a leaf can be seen at a single glance, making it easier to understand the main idea and appreciate its most beautiful parts. Though perfectly displaying the work of art in such a small space, plenty of room for the imagination still remains in this intimate format, making the album leaf an ideal microcosm to bring the viewer into the world of the artist's mind.