Divine Steeds gallops into the Palace Museum

Divine Steeds: The World of Horses in the Palace Museum's Painting and Calligraphy Collections kicked off on Tuesday at the Palace Museum in Beijing. The exhibition will open to the public in the museum's Wenhua Dian (Hall of Literary Brilliance) from Wednesday until June 21.

In its four chapters — journey and leisure, pasturing and rearing, martial prowess, and divine spirits — the display showcases 55 paintings and calligraphy works, among which 28 are debuting to the public for the very first time, including 20 first-grade cultural relics.

Wang Xudong, director of the Palace Museum, said that the spirit of the horse, characterized by steady progress leading to lasting success, resonates deeply with the Palace Museum's ethos of "revering heritage with sincerity and devotion, and passing on craftsmanship with ingenuity".

"By hosting this special exhibition, the Palace Museum seeks to celebrate the uplifting spirit of the era embodied by the horse's upright and aspiring posture. It also aims to guide visitors to appreciate ancient masterpieces, explore the social history and cultural ethos of different periods, and reflect on the profound and expansive richness of Chinese civilization," he said.

The Tang Dynasty (618-907)-attributed scroll One Hundred Horses is on display for the first time. Using a continuous composition, the scroll depicts 43 grooms tending to 95 official horses, featuring scenes such as brushing and bathing, feeding, horse training, and the use of horse tack, demonstrating a high degree of realism.

According to Ma Shunping, curator of the display, the brushwork is bold and firm, the composition compact, and the horse forms are accurately rendered with expressive postures. The equipment of the horses and grooms resembles Khitan customs. Combined with the brushwork style, this suggests the work was created by an anonymous court painter of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127).