‘Seven Jeweled Mountain’ springs to digital life
Against a lyrical soundtrack, a sublime mountainous landscape emerges from the darkness on a towering screen at the National Palace Museum of Korea in central Seoul. The delicate ink brushstrokes evoke the sensation of standing at the center of a vast natural wonder, enveloping visitors in a heady experience.
This breathtaking panoramic vista comes from a late 19th-century folding screen depicting Mount Chilbo, or “Seven Jeweled Mountain.”
Both the artifact and its natural subject are rather difficult to access for Koreans today; the folding screen is housed in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, while Mount Chilbo is nestled in present-day North Hamgyong Province, North Korea.
That is why the new digital exhibition, “Into the Seven Jeweled Mountain: An Immersive Experience,” unfolding simultaneously in Seoul and Ohio as a result of the collaboration among the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA), the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation (OKCHF) and the U.S. museum, carries particular significance.
“The exhibition is a wonderful chance for us to share digitally our museum’s 19th century folding screen … both with the Korean audience and with the world,” remarked William Griswold, director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, in a video message during a press conference in Seoul, Friday.
The show bathes viewers in the stunning panorama of the mountain’s topographical features captured in the 4.6-meter-long silk partition — ranging from flat-topped cliffs and igneous boulders to oddly shaped pillars and a secluded Buddhist temple.
The creator of this exceptional work remains anonymous, yet it stands as a celebrated example of late Joseon-era landscape painting. It embodies the “wayu” concept, which involves appreciating natural scenery through paintings from the comfort of one’s room, a practice widely embraced by scholars during the Joseon period.
Mount Chilbo gained popularity both as a travel destination and an aesthetic subject during the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) after Im Hyeong-su (1514-1547), then a magistrate in Hamgyong Province, published a travelog detailing his sightseeing experience in 1542.
“How could the heavens conceal such a magnificent mountain in our country for thousands of years without anyone knowing?” he wrote.
The prose inscribed in the upper right corner of the folding screen recounts the origin of the mountain’s nickname, while small writing sprinkled throughout its 10 panels indicates the names given to each geological feature and architectural element found across the sierra’s spectacular terrain.
The exhibition in Seoul primarily features digital content inspired by Mount Chilbo and other Korean artifacts from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection, while the U.S. show is putting on view the actual artifact alongside its digital rendition. Accompanying both shows is voice-over narration performed by actor Ryu Jun-yeol and music by Korean-Japanese composer and pianist Yang Bang-ean.
“This event is particularly meaningful as it marks the first case where the CHA and OKCHF present Korea’s overseas cultural heritage in an immersive digital exhibition format,” said Choi Eung-chon, head of CHA.
“Into the Seven Jeweled Mountain” runs until May 26 at the National Palace Museum of Korea and until Sept. 29 at the Cleveland Museum of Art.