Images of classical Chinese artworks

July 15, 2017 4:35 PM

The English-language website of Taiwan's National Palace Museum has over two thousand images available from its archive in high quality scans. You can search by keyword or browse by dynasty and category. For instance, you can take a look at Ming-era paintings, Song-era jade craftworks or Ch'ing-era ceramics. You can also download images from recent expeditions. If you haven't had your fill, you can then browse the museum's Chinese language websites for painting and antiquities, which have a combined 70 thousand images. If you don't know Chinese and want to use the search function, Google Translate might be of some help.
posted by Kattullus (5 comments total)

The National Palace Museum is one of the main things I miss from my year in Taiwan (along with the food). I kept going back because the exhibits kept changing because they have so goddam much stuff, and it's all great (when the Nationalists fled the mainland, they basically took the art with them, so it's as if you had all the collections of all the great museums of Europe in one place). Thanks for the post!
posted by languagehat at 6:02 PM on July 15, 2017 [6 favorites]

I agree with languagehat. We were in Taipei for 9 months, but I think I went more than 10 times. So many cool things to see that are not the jadeite cabbage... ;)
posted by gemmy at 6:15 PM on July 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

If you don't know Chinese and want to use the search function, Google Translate might be of some help.

I maybe of some help, depending on my time.
posted by runcifex at 6:16 PM on July 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

highlight of my Taiwan trip nthed! i was blown away by the fruit pit carvings....thank you!
posted by Wilder at 11:32 PM on July 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wow, those Ch'ing-era ceramics are stunning. Thanks, Katullus, this is wonderful.
posted by mediareport at 3:33 AM on July 16, 2017 [1 favorite]