A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains: Blue-green Landscape Paintings Across Chinese History
The blue-green landscape painting is an important subset of traditional Chinese paintings of rivers and mountains. Literati enthusiasts of ink wash paintings have fully sent the genre mainstream since the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), yet the historical significance and value of blue-green landscape paintings have consistently been neglected and seldom researched ever since.
From September 15 to December 14, 2017, the Palace Museum held one of the most important exhibitions of the year: “Blue-green Landscape Paintings from across Chinese History,” at which 86 cultural relics were put on display. It marked the museum’s first exhibition of blue-green landscape paintings.
According to Dr. Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum, the exhibition systematically displayed the development of blue-green landscape paintings across Chinese history, with Apanoramaof Riversand Mountains by Wang Ximeng (1096-unknown) from the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) as the core. It was complemented by other works housed in the Palace Museum such as Springexcursion by Zhan Ziqian (545-618) from the Sui Dynasty (581-618) and The
Landscape in autumn by Zhao boju (11201182) and Golden hall sin pine forest by Zhao Bosu (1124-1182) from the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279).
Wang Zhongxu, an associate research fellow of the Palace Museum, planned the exhibition. He noted that the exhibition was organized based on research conducted on exhibits housed primarily in the Palace Museum, with additional contributions borrowed from Shanghai Museum, Liaoning Provincial Museum, Dunhuang Research Academy and the National Art Museum of China. Together, a comprehensive survey of the history of blue-green landscape paintings was presented.
Development of Blue-green Landscape Paintings
This exhibition was divided into five parts based on the history of the paintings. The first section, “Dazzling Splendors,” displayed how blue-green landscape paintings originated and developed into a complete form from the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420) to the Song Dynasty (960-1279). This section not only demonstrated the origins of blue-green landscape paintings with four duplicates of murals from Dunhuang Research Academy, but also displayed the most outstanding works of blue-green landscape paintings held by the court, including Spring
Excursion by Zhan Ziqian, Thelandscape
in Autumn by Zhao Boju and Golden Halls in Pine Forest by Zhao Bosu.
The second part, “Dark Ink and Pure Tastes,” displayed the confluence of bluegreen landscape paintings and literati paintings during the period from the Yuan Dynasty to the middle of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Blue-green landscape paintings broke out of the court during the Yuan Dynasty and became popular among the literati. Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322), who pioneered new trends in literati paintings, explored myriad styles of blue-green landscape paintings. In this part, Teapartyin Huishan by Wen Zhengming (1470-1559) and Lonelymountain by Qian Xuan (1239-1299) were displayed.
The third section, “Featured Item,” displayed the central work of the entire exhibition, A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains by Wang Ximeng, a court painter in the Northern Song Dynasty. This part also displayed replicated works by Wang Bing and Fang Cong, both court painters of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
The fourth part, “Imitations Surpassing the Originals,” showed how blue-green landscape paintings changed dramatically under the influence of Dong Qichang’s theory of the division of landscape paintings into southern and northern schools and the trend of imitating ancient masters’ skills. This section focused on works by Dong Qichang (1555-1636) and “Four Wangs of the Early Qing” (four painters who shared the surname Wang during the early Qing Dynasty).
The fifth part, “The New from the Old,” displayed the transformation of this type of painting under the shock wave of the arrival of Western culture and paintings. However, the quality of the paintings in this period could never rival those of previous times.
Featured Work: A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains
In this exhibition, A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains was regarded as the most important work and was most highlighted
among a range of famous exhibits. This immense painting and Along the river during the qing ming Festival, which was finished a bit earlier by Zhang Zeduan of the Northern Song Dynasty, both consistently rank among the ten greatest existing ancient Chinese paintings. These two paintings represent the peaks of two different styles of painting of the Northern Song Dynasty.
The blue-green landscape painting, A Panorama of River sand mountains, stretch es 11.9 meters long and 51.5 centimeters wide and is housed in the Palace Museum. For this exhibition, the Palace Museum constructed a special showcase to display the painting, which enables it to be exhibited at full length for the first time. As spectators moved along the showcase, they could gradually take in the endless mountain ranges of southern China in early summer, pavilions and temples peppered among the beautiful scenery and fishermen tossing out nets. Every detail is an indispensable piece of a magnificent landscape. This painting is considered the best representation of the aesthetic philosophy of prosperity and harmony proposed by Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty.
In Wang Zhongxu’s opinion, the fact that A panorama of Rivers and mountains colors such a large area with high saturation makes it unique among all existing blue-green landscape paintings. The pigment has maintained a high level of saturation after nearly one thousand years, so the general appearance is still very bright. This is highlighted by the tiny parts that peeled off showing the complexity of the pigment, which differs significantly from ink and wash paintings.
Aside from beautiful paintings, another factor that attracted public attention was the mysterious life of Wang Ximeng. He finished the masterpiece at the age of 18 and died not long after. How did he become a student of Emperor Huizong? Why did he die at such a young age? Many questions about him linger today. Wang Zhongxu pointed out the uniqueness of Wang Ximeng: He is renowned today just for a single painting, not for his life as a painter.
A biennial event first established in 2013, HUGO BOSS Asia Art Award for Emerging Asian Artists is regarded as a high-profile award that honors emerging contemporary artists in the early stages of their artistic creation and exhibition practices. This year’s nominees include Li Ming (China), Tao Hui (China), Yu Ji (China) and Robert Zhao Renhui (Singapore).
In forms such as sculptures, videos, photography and installations, the exhibition presents newly-commissioned works by the four finalists as well as the latest collections held by the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, probing developmental potential and new trends of contemporary art.