The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is a genre painting.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is one of the top ten famous paintings handed down from ancient times in China. It's a genre painting of the Northern Song Dynasty, and it's the only surviving masterpiece of the Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan.

The Riverside Map on Qingming Festival is 24.8 cm wide and 528.7 cm long, and the silk version is colored. In the form of a long scroll, the work vividly records the city appearance of Tokyo (also called Bianjing, now Kaifeng, Henan), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty in China in the 12th century, and the living conditions of people from all walks of life at that time. It is a witness to the prosperity of Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty and a portrayal of the urban economic situation in 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, * * * painted a large number of various figures, such as cattle, mules, donkeys and other livestock, cars, sedan chairs, large and small ships, houses, bridges, towers and so on, which reflected the characteristics of architecture in the Song Dynasty.

From the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, we can see several very distinctive artistic features: this painting is written with a pen and works, with elegant colors, which is different from the general boundary painting, that is, the so-called "don't get married". The composition adopts the bird's-eye panoramic method, which truly and intensively describes the typical area of the southeast corner of Bianjing at that time. The author uses the traditional hand-scroll form and adopts the "scatter perspective" to organize the picture. The picture is long but not redundant, complicated but not chaotic, tight and compact, as in one go. The scenery taken in the painting is as big as the silent Yuan Ye, the vast rivers and the towering battlements; As small as the characters in the boat, the goods displayed on the vendors, and the words on the market, there is no loss. The picture is interspersed with various plots, which are well organized and interesting at the same time.

content

it is rich in content and depicts many things. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival uses the method of constantly moving the viewpoint, that is, "scatter perspective" to capture the required scene. From the vast Yuan Ye, the vast rivers, the towering battlements, to the nails and rivets on boats and cars, the small commodities on vendors, and the words on the market, they are harmoniously organized into a unified whole. In the paintings, there are officials, farmers, businessmen, doctors, monks, Taoist priests, petty officials, women, children, teachers, cable men and other figures, as well as donkeys, cows, and so on. There are fairs, trading, hanging out, drinking, getting together, pushing boats, pulling carts, riding cars, riding horses and so on. There are many shops in the streets, hotels, teahouses and dim sum shops, as well as towers, river ports, bridges, cargo ships, government houses and thatched cottages.

There are different opinions about the number of people painted in The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, including more than 5 people (Bai Shouyi's A General History of China), 815 people (Tang Youchang's Counting Meter Method) and 1695 people (Qi Teng Qian's Zhuotang Wenhua Volume 8). In addition, there are more than 6 kinds of livestock, more than 2 wooden boats and more than 3 pavilions. Such rich and colorful contents are rare in ancient paintings of past dynasties. All kinds of activities that people of all colors engage in are not only different in clothes, but also different in facial expressions and temperament, and they are interspersed with various activities, which are full of dramatic plot conflicts, so that viewers can watch them and have endless aftertaste.

structure

the structure is rigorous, complicated but not chaotic, long but not redundant, and the paragraphs are clear. What is valuable is that such a rich and colorful content has a prominent subject and echoes from beginning to end, and the whole volume is integrated. Every figure, scene and detail in the painting are arranged reasonably, and the relationship between pictures such as density, simplicity, movement, gathering and dispersion is properly handled, so as to achieve complexity without miscellaneous, and more without chaos. It fully shows the painter's profound insight into social life and his high ability of picture organization and control. From the content, this painting belongs to genre painting and also has the characteristics of genre painting.

techniques

in terms of techniques, the combination of big and fine handwriting. Be good at choosing things, scenes and plots that are both vivid and poetic, and have essential characteristics to express. Very meticulous observation of life, depicting every character and prop. Everyone has his own identity, manner and plot. Buildings, bridges and other buildings are well-structured and meticulously depicted. Cars, horses and boats cover everything, so we should be small without losing the whole picture and its potential. For example, the objects on the ship, the way of nailing and riveting, and even the tying of ropes are all clearly explained, which is amazing.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival uses 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 boats and cars, the small commodities on vendors, and the words on the market, they are harmoniously organized into a unified whole. In the paintings, there are officials, farmers, businessmen, doctors, monks, Taoist priests, petty officials, women, children, teachers, cable men and other figures, as well as donkeys, cows, and so on. There are fairs, trading, hanging out, drinking, getting together, pushing boats, pulling carts, riding cars, riding horses and so on. There are many shops in the streets, hotels, teahouses and dim sum shops, as well as towers, river ports, bridges, cargo ships, government houses and thatched cottages.