Description of Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival

China is one of the top ten famous paintings handed down from generation to generation. The genre painting of the Northern Song Dynasty, with a width of 24.8 cm (24.8 cm) and a length of 528.7 cm (528 cm), is the representative work of Zhang Zeduan, a painter of the Northern Song Dynasty. It is a first-class national treasure. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival vividly records the urban life of China in the12nd century, which is unique in the painting history of China and even the world.

In the form of a long scroll, the work uses the composition method of scattered perspective to bring complicated scenery into a unified and changeable picture scroll. This painting is mainly divided into two parts, one is the countryside and the other is the market. There are 8 14 people, more than 60 livestock, 28 ships, more than 30 buildings, 20 cars, 8 sedan chairs and more than 70 trees/kloc-0. They wear different clothes and look different and lifelike. In the meantime, various activities are interspersed, paying attention to the plot, dense composition, full of rhythm and rhythm changes, and the brushwork is very good.

This painting depicts the prosperity of Bianjing in the Qingming period. It is a witness to the prosperity of Bianjing in that year and a portrayal of the economic situation of the city in the Northern Song Dynasty. Through this painting, we learned about the city appearance of the Northern Song Dynasty and the life of people from all walks of life at that time. In a word, The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is of great historical value.

The center of the Riverside Map on Qingming Festival consists of a rainbow-shaped bridge and the street surface of Qiaotou Street. At first glance, crowded and chaotic; A closer look shows that these people are from different industries and engage in various activities. There are some vendors and many tourists on the west side of the bridge. There are knives, scissors and groceries on the stall. There are tea sellers and fortune tellers. Many tourists lean against the railings by the bridge, or point at them, or watch the ships coming and going in the river. On the sidewalk in the middle of the bridge, there are bustling people; There are people who ride cars, ride horses, carry loads, drive donkeys, transport goods and push unicycles ... The south side of the bridge is connected with the street. On both sides of the street are teahouses, pubs, pawn shops and workshops. There are many vendors with big umbrellas in the open spaces on both sides of the street. The street extends eastward and westward to the quiet suburb outside the city, but there are still pedestrians on the street: some are carrying goods, some are driving ox carts to deliver goods, some are driving donkeys to pull trucks, and some stop to watch the scenery of Bianhe River.

There are many boats coming and going on the Bian River, which can be described as a race in Qian Fan. Some are parked near the dock, and some are driving in the river. Some big ships were overloaded, and the owners hired many trackers to tow them. A big ship carrying goods has passed under the bridge and will soon cross bridge opening. At this time, the boatman on this big ship is very busy. Some people stood at the top of the canopy and put down their sails; Some people are struggling to support the pole by the boat; Some people hold the ceiling of bridge opening with long poles, so that the boat can pass safely with the water. This tense scene attracted the attention of tourists on the bridge and nearby boatmen, who stood by and cheered. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival vividly depicts the busy and tense traffic scene on the Bianhe River, adding more vitality to the painting.

Zhang Zeduan has a high artistic generalization, which makes The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival reach a high artistic level. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is unprecedented in its rich content, numerous characters and grand scale. The picture of Riverside Scene on Qingming Festival is dense and orderly, from quiet suburbs to bustling city streets, attracting people everywhere.

Based on Qian's Zhuo? According to the statistics in Volume 8, there are 1659 characters and 209 animals in the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, which is more than the classical novels Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1 195), Dream of Red Mansions (975) and Water Margin (788).

The whole picture of Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival can be divided into three sections. When the picture unfolds, the first thing you see is the scenery on the outskirts of Bianjing. The middle section mainly depicts the busy scenes on both sides of Shangtu Bridge and Bianhe River. The second half depicts the street view of Bianjing City. The size of the word is less than 3 cm, as small as a bean. If you look at them carefully, they are both physically and mentally interesting.

According to the textual research on the inscription of Li Dongyang, a Ming Dynasty man, there should be a landscape map of the outer suburbs in front of The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, which is inscribed with Song Huizong's fine gold lettering and Ssangyong's small seal for his collection, but now these have disappeared from the painting. There are two reasons. One possibility is that this picture has been circulated for too long, and the beginning part was broken after being enjoyed by countless people, so it was cut off when later generations mounted it; One possibility is that Song Huizong's inscription and Ssangyong Xiao Zhuan are valuable, and later generations deliberately cut them off and sold them as another painting.

Many experts suspect that the second half of The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is missing, because this painting should not come to an abrupt end just after entering Kaifeng City, but should be painted all the way to Jinming Pool.

Artistic feature

From The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, we can see several very distinctive artistic features:

First, it is rich in content. 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, laborers and so on, as well as donkeys and horses. 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 8 15 people, more than 60 kinds of livestock, more than 20 wooden boats, more than 30 pavilions and more than 20 trolleys on the riverside map at Qingming Festival. 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 and facial expressions, but also with various activities, full of dramatic plot conflicts, which make viewers look at the industry with endless aftertaste.

Second, the structure is rigorous, complicated but not chaotic, long but not redundant, and the paragraphs are clear. What is commendable is that such rich and colorful content, prominent theme, echo from beginning to end, the whole volume is seamless. 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.

Thirdly, in terms of techniques, the combination of big brushwork and meticulous brushwork is good at choosing vivid and poetic things, scenes and plots with essential characteristics to express. Observe life very carefully and portray every character and prop. Everyone has his own identity, way and plot. Buildings, bridges and other buildings are rigorous in structure and detailed in description. Cars, horses and boats cover all aspects, so be careful not to lose sight of the whole picture or the situation. For example, the objects on the ship, the way of nailing and riveting, and even the method of tying the rope are all explained clearly and magically.