Quartet scroll exhibition underway at National Fine Art Museum

An exhibition of four-scroll woodblock prints called “Colours of Spring” is underway at the Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum at 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc street, Hanoi.

A set of four-scroll woodblock prints displayed at an exhibition "Colours of Spring" by the Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum. (Photo: thanhnien.vn)

Running through the end of February, the exhibition features a collection of 20 quartet prints of different topics, including The Four Seasons Quartet, The Goddess Quartet, The Eight Immortals Quartet, and Historical and Illustrative Quartet. 

These series provide vivid insights into the ancestors’ conception of time and daily life, said Nguyen Anh Minh, Director of the Vietnam National Fine Art Museum.

Minh noted that four-scroll woodblock print, or quartet scroll, is a set of four printings that depicts a wide variety of topics such as the four seasons of the year, the four stages of human life, the four episodes from works of literature and popular legends, or the four idealised female figures.

Some series are even enhanced with beautiful Han or Nom calligraphy as a wish for wealth and peace, he said. Quartet scrolls have long been favoured to decorate houses or used as objects of spiritual veneration, depending on their motifs and subject matter./.

VNA