Along the River During the Qingming Festival

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is one of the top ten famous paintings handed down by China. It is a genre painting of the Northern Song Dynasty and the only masterpiece that Zhang Zeduan, a painter of the Northern Song Dynasty, has ever seen. This is a national treasure, which is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is 24.8 cm wide and 528.7 cm long, and it is in silk color. In the form of a long scroll, the work vividly records the city appearance of Tokyo (also known as Bianjing, now Kaifeng, Henan), the capital of China in the Northern Song Dynasty in the12nd century, and the living conditions of people from all walks of life at that time. It is a witness to the prosperity of Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, and also a portrayal of the economic situation of the Northern Song Dynasty.

This is unique in the history of painting in China and even in the world. In the five-meter-long picture scroll, a large number of various figures are drawn, including cattle, mules, donkeys and other livestock, cars, sedan chairs, large and small ships, houses, bridges and towers, reflecting the architectural characteristics of the Song Dynasty. It has high historical value and artistic value. Although the scene of The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is lively, it is not a bustling city scene, but a "bustling and dangerous picture" with a sense of urgency. Officers and men are lazy and pay heavy taxes.

Extended data:

Rich in content and depicting many things. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival adopts the method of constantly moving the viewpoint, that is, "scattered perspective" to capture the required scene. From the vast Yuan Ye, the vast rivers, the towering battlements, to the nails and rivets on ships and cars, the small commodities on vendors, and the words on the market, they are all harmoniously organized into a unified whole. There are officials, farmers, businessmen, doctors, monks, Taoist priests, petty officials, women, children, teachers, telegraphs and other figures, as well as donkeys, cows and so on.

There are fairs, trading, hanging out, drinking, parties, pushing boats, pulling carts, riding cars, riding horses and so on. There are many shops, hotels, teahouses and dim sum shops in the street, as well as towers, river ports, bridges, cargo ships, government buildings and thatched cottages.

There are different opinions about the number of people painting The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, generally speaking, there are more than 500 people (Bai Shouyi's General History of China)? [8], 8 15 people said (Tang Youchang counted meters), 1695 people said (Qian's "Zhuo Juan Ba"), in addition, there are more than 60 livestock, more than 20 wooden boats, more than 30 houses and more than 20 trolleys, all of which are consistent.

Such rich and colorful contents are rare in ancient paintings of past dynasties. People of all colors engage in various activities, not only with different clothes, but also with different facial expressions and temperament, and interspersed with various activities, full of dramatic plot conflicts, which make the audience have endless aftertaste.

structure

Every figure, scene and detail in the painting are arranged reasonably, and the relationship between the pictures, such as density, simplicity, movement, gathering and dispersion, is handled properly, so as to be complex but not miscellaneous, but not chaotic. It fully shows the painter's profound insight into social life and superb ability to organize and control pictures. From the content, this painting belongs to genre painting and also has the characteristics of genre painting.

Skills and technology

In terms of technique, the combination of big hand and fine hand brushwork. Be good at choosing things, scenes and plots that are vivid and poetic and have essential characteristics to express. Observe life very carefully and portray every character and prop.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival