How this Chinese scroll confronts us with our own mortality

"We’ve gone from the solid world into this confrontation with the ultimate emptiness of life."

"We've gone from the solid world into this confrontation with the ultimate emptiness of life."

Curator Maxwell K. Hearn on "Cloudy Mountains," a handscroll by Fang Congyi.

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Throughout 2013, The Met invited curators from across the Museum to each talk about one artwork that changed the way they see the world. Each episode is interpreted by a Museum photographer.

Photography by Eileen Travell

Music by Austin Fisher

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Contributors

Maxwell K. Hearn
Douglas Dillon Chairman, Department of Asian Art, MMA

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Cloudy Mountains, Fang Congyi  Chinese, Handscroll; ink and color on paper, China
Fang Congyi
ca. 1360–70