Vietnam Fine Arts Museum receives two rare ancient paintings

On January 22, in Hanoi, the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum organized the reception of two ancient works of art: “Thien Thuong Do” and “Cung Nghiem Phat Gia”, which are precious and rare worship paintings of the San Diu ethnic group, donated by collector Pham Duc Si.

Among them, the painting “Thien Thuong Do” is a vertical scroll painting, up to 13m long, 26cm wide, painted in natural colors on Do paper, dating from around the beginning of the 20th century. According to the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, this is a rare type of long scroll painting, depicting the layers of space from hell to heaven. The painting has a tight composition, elegant strokes, and fresh colors, and is a painting of high historical, cultural, and artistic value.

The second painting is called “Welcoming the Buddha”, also a vertical scroll painting (short prayer painting), with beautiful drawings, fresh colors, and time-stained paper… the painting depicts the story of people welcoming the Buddha (Welcoming the Buddha).

Speaking at the ceremony, collector Pham Duc Si said that he has loved collecting worship paintings of ethnic minorities since 2000, and now has a rich collection of worship paintings, up to several hundred paintings. When he learned that the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts wanted to buy worship paintings to supplement and enrich the museum's folk painting collection, as someone who has worked with the museum for many years, he knew that the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts did not have the two worship paintings "Thien Thuong Do" and "Cung Nghiem Phat Gia", so he expressed his intention to donate them to the museum, with the hope that these paintings would be preserved, exploited and the value of the works would be promoted to the public.

According to folk painting researcher Phan Ngoc Khue, the two worship paintings awarded this time, the painting "Cung nghinh Phat Gia" means welcoming Buddha down to earth. The painting "Thien thuong do" means sending the deceased to heaven (the land of the saints). These are extremely rare paintings, of high cultural value, closely associated with rituals in the cultural life of the San Diu ethnic group. These paintings can be considered an "encyclopedia" of the spiritual world of the San Diu ethnic group. Through these paintings, we can have a deeper understanding of the cultural and spiritual life of the ethnic group...

Speaking at the reception ceremony, Director of the Fine Arts Museum Nguyen Anh Minh expressed his appreciation for the sentiments and noble gesture of collector Pham Duc Si for the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, for the two extremely meaningful gifts, added to the Museum's collection.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Minh affirmed that these are two valuable works of Vietnamese folk art, donated by a collector. In particular, the 13-meter-long painting “Thien Thuong Do” is extremely rare. This is the first time that the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum has a long and valuable painting added to and enriched to the Museum’s collection of folk paintings.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Minh also acknowledged and committed to preserving and effectively promoting the value of these two ancient paintings in the future. When there is an opportunity, the Museum will display the works for the general public of art lovers to enjoy.

Sharing about the collection of works at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, Director Nguyen Anh Minh said that although there are still many difficulties, every year the Museum organizes research and collects works of art to add to the collections. The quality and valuable gifts that artists and collectors give to the Museum are extremely meaningful in the research and collection work.

Director of the Fine Arts Museum Nguyen Anh Minh expressed his wish and called on artists, researchers, collectors, businesses, etc. to continue to support and contribute to the collection and donation of valuable works to the museum, so that the museum can have more fine art works, so that future generations have the opportunity to enjoy the fine art works left by their ancestors./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Photo: Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts

Source: https://vnfam.vn/vi/tin-t%E1%BB%A9c-ho%E1%BA%A1t-%C4%91%E1%BB%99ng/67918c64868636002a3fce75