Look Who’s Playing Hide and Seek in Paintings from the National Palace Museum Collection!
Exhibition Hide-and-Seek Insects bears the fruit of a collaboration between art historians and entomologists - a crossover of art and natural science.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — I never really noticed that summer season provides the perfect breeding ground for bugs until this past summer when I — during a few trips to the mountain — was accompanied by unexpected guests: caterpillar, grasshopper, flying beetle, and other unfamiliar faces.
It’s fitting that, with the summer in full wing, the National Palace Museum in Taipei launched the exhibition Hide-and-Seek Insects (草蟲捉迷藏), illuminating how ancient Chinese painters put a spotlight on these inconspicuous living creatures who, often found hidden or blended into their habitat, have always been hard to track.
Contrary to the past exhibitions held at the National Palace Museum (NPM), which looked at paintings from an art-historical perspective, what makes Hide-and-Seek Insects exceptional is that it bears the fruit of a collaboration between art historians and entomologists — an interdisciplinary research of art and natural science; while art historians focused on the historic context and stylistic tradition of the paintings, entomologists were eager to identify the species of the insects portrayed on silk and paper.
Caochong Throughout the History of Chinese Art
It was only nine hundred years ago that caochong (草蟲), literally insect-and-grass, was considered a category of its own in the Chinese painting tradition, affiliated with the genre “Vegetable and Fruits”.
Plants and Insects in Autumn by Li Di, Song Dynasty
Courtesy of National Palace Museum
Due to the size of these living creatures, insects were often portrayed on small surfaces, such as fans and small album leaves. Traditional caochong paintings were executed in two styles: gongbi and mogu; in the former, the subject is meticulously-depicted with precision with the aid of a fine outline, whereas in the latter, the subject is more expressive and lacks a defined outline, hence the description mogu or boneless.
Li Di’s Plants and Insects in Autumn (宋李迪秋卉草蟲) is a good example of gongbi painting that vividly captures a praying mantis who, poised at the leafy tip of the plants with its forelimbs raised, had just failed to catch the fleeing beetle. Among the peaceful grasslands, moment of tension as such is happening at every nanosecond. It’s fascinating how, by depicting this very one scene, Li empowers the viewers in completing the narrative that precedes and succeeds this intense moment of life-or-death.
Clearly, the painting’s style and quality are typical of the Northern Song Painting Academy of Emperor Huizong (reigned 1101–1125), but the composition of this intimate scene also recalls that of a photograph taken by a modern photographer who, by zooming in on the camera lens, perpetuates this very split-second into a lasting impression.
Plants and Butterflies by Sun Long, Ming Dynasty
A beautiful example of mogu caochong painting — now that we’ve become expert in these jargons — is found on an album leaf by Sun Long, who served in the palace in the 15th century and excelled at the technique of ink-and-colour wash. In his Plants and Butterflies (明孫龍草花蛺蝶圖), the alum glue coating on the silk surface allowed Sun to use moist brushstrokes without smudging the edges. The coloured leaves, though lacks of an outline, is characterised by a distinctive shape, which lends to it a spirited and dynamic effect while not being overly expressive nor abstract.
A hanging scroll titled Okra Flowers (明商祚秋葵圖) is a rare masterpiece from the 15th century, mostly due to its imposing size. Even though some of the ink and colours have already faded by now, it’s not difficult to spot the insects hiding among the plants, including flying wasps, butterflies about to suck the nectar of flowers, and grasshopper confronting a black ladybug.
Left: Okra Flowers by Shang Zhou, Ming Dynasty | Right: Details
Courtesy of National Palace Museum
Not all paintings that contain representation of insects were considered caochong paintings. For painters who were not able to observe these creatures first-hand, they could refer to their predecessors’ work for reference.
The exhibition showcases a copy of the renowned Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden (Jieziyuan huapu), an encyclopaedia that instructs its readers on how to paint a variety of subjects, including flora and fauna. On the other hand, hanging illustrations used for educational purposes also demonstrate accurate depictions — and sometimes identification — of the insects’ physical features.
Two hand fans painted by anonymous painters, Qing Dynasty
Bringing Caochong to Everyday Life
Besides album and hanging scroll, insects could also be found on the surface of fans. Among the two round-shaped fans, one illustrates a pair of butterflies hovering near an impressive pink bloom, whereas another one shows butterflies found atop a field of melons. In Chinese, the word for butterfly is die, a homophone for longevity. The combination of melon and butterfly is gua die, a homophone for prosperous offspring. The presence of butterflies on these two fans, coupled with its feminine design, suggests that they probably came from women’s possession.
Next to these two round-shaped fans is a fancy folding fan painted by celebrated female artist Ma Shouzhen (1548–1604). On a glittering gold background, butterflies are seen chasing one another among dandelion, alfalfa and viola. The depiction of flowers and butterflies are so vivid that I couldn’t help but imaging that the action of waving such fan could animate a world where butterflies are seen riding the spring breeze scented with fresh blooms.
Flowers and Butterflies folding fan by Ma Shouzhen, Ming Dynasty
Courtesy of National Palace Museum
Located at the top right of this elegant fan, otherwise known as the Flowers and Butterflies (明馬守貞花蝶圖), is a poem by Wang Zhi-Deng, whose verse specifically refers to the butterfly as the Pieridae. This is contrary to the observation made by one entomologist who didn’t spot any Pieridae in this painting but the Satyrinae and Geometridae. One can only conclude that this is probably because people used Pieridae as an umbrella term for pink-coloured butterflies.
My favourite painting from the exhibition is a Qing-dynasty handscroll by artist Zhu Rulin titled Insects (清朱汝琳畫草蟲), a cosmos in itself that seems to encompass all types of insects that one could possibly think of: butterfly, bees, longicorn beetle, grasshopper, mantis, ant, etc. A total of 70 insects can be found in this one single handscroll!
Zhu brilliantly presented a faithful representation of every insect; each of these tiny creatures was drawn with extremely fine and confident brushstrokes, making this a precious entomological archive of the 18th century. Her use of colour is imbued with a gentle, calming effect, to the extent that even the most unfavourable cockroach appears to be less irritating than in real life.
Insects by Zhu Ruilin, Qing Dynasty
The format of handscroll, as well as hand fan, brings the insects to life like no other types of canvas. In the case of a handscroll, it travels with the owner who, by unfolding the long, narrow scroll — often measures up to several meters in length — bit by bit, could view the desired pictures whenever, wherever.
Caochong from Paintings to Films
Hide-and-Seek Insects is an exhibition that shed light on Chinese painters’ observation of these miniature-sized creatures, and how their presence invigorated their surrounding habitat. But how could we, as urban dwellers, coexist with the insects? A special film festival organised on the occasion of this exhibition might just be able to answer this question.
In early September, the National Palace Museum hosted the National Palace Museum Natural World Film Festival. This was made possible thanks to a collaboration with Wildview Taiwan, an organisation known for making natural world storytelling more accessible to the public.
In this festival, a selection of natural world films — with a focus on insects, of course — was screened, including Tâi-oân Tōng-bu̍t Lâi Chhiò-koa (台灣動物來唱歌), Fading Croaking of Frogs (漸弱的蛙鳴), and Rebirth (蟲生). These films were all nominated in The First Taiwan Ecological Environment Film Festival in 2021. Before screening of each film took place, the film director was invited on stage to do a brief sharing.
National Palace Museum Natural World Film Festival
There are certainly different ways to look at any works of art. In the case of Hide-and-Seek Insects, visitors are encouraged to not only appreciate the virtuoso technique of the painters, but to look beyond the painted surface.
With the entomological insights available for all the paintings on display, visitors can — perhaps for the first time — learn about a painting from a natural science point of view, and be amazed by the painters’ knowledge of entomology, if not their familiarity with the subjects.
Even when being told that some of the painters may have made a mistake when depicting the insect’s physical features (in one case, butterfly’s tentacles have been mistakenly placed for that of a moth), the painters’ diligent pursuit in capturing every single detail of these tiny subjects are treasured by its beholders.
Hide-and-Seek Insects is currently on view at the National Palace Museum in Taipei city and runs through September 25, 2022. To learn more about the exhibition, visit the museum’s website here.