Page 11 - Art First: Simon Morley: Lost Horizon

by only a few people at a given time. Unrolled from right to le, so that about
50 cm is revealed at a time, the viewed section is then re-rolled before another
section is unrolled. In contrast to a hanging scroll painting, the hand scroll usually

tells a story that unfolds across time. e same character(s) may appear at multi-
ple points over the extent of the painting, something like a car toon strip or ani-
mated film. But Ahn Gyeon’s painting is unusual insofar as it unrolls from le
to right, and there are no characters at all.

One of the painting’s 23 colophons was composed and penned by Prince
Anpyeong, who commissioned the work. In it he describes how he had a vivid
dream in which he became the fisherman described in a famous poem by the

Chinese poet Tao Quian (365–427 CE) called A Peach Blossom Spring and soon
aerwards asked Ahn Gyeon to paint the handscroll. Prince Anpyeong also
describes what he saw in his dream: ‘e paradise is a land of mountains, range
upon range formed by deep gorges, and the rocky peaks are loy and remote . . . .

Mountains on four sides stood like walls in thick clouds and mists. Peach trees
in the near and far distance were reflected through hazy, rosy clouds.’ It is this
peach grove, which we see in the right-hand section of the painting, that
announces the location of the secret Utopian community.

Tao Quian’s poem had been written during a time of great political turmoil for
China. It begins with a fisherman following a stream and losing track of the
distance he traveled. He encounters a peach blossom grove, and aer enjoying the

fragrant air filled with blossoms, he looks for the end of the grove and finds