Travelers Among Mountains and Streams

Fan Kuan painted around the year 1000, in the Northern Song. His signature was hidden in the leaves for eight centuries. The cliff face fills more than two thirds of the picture — Fan Kuan had lived as a hermit in the mountains and painted them the way they actually felt to a person standing beneath them. Down in the bottom right, almost lost in the trees, a caravan of muleteers is moving along a stream. Once you see them, you can't unsee how big the mountain is. Now at the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Now at National Palace Museum, Taipei @national_palace_museum