China's Mona Lisa - Painting 'Riverside Scene During The Qingming Festival'

Part of Painting ‘Riverside Scene During The Qingming Festival’

One of Ten China Famous Paintings - Riverside Scene During The Qingming Festival is a custom painting work for the Northern Song Dynasty, which is 24.8 cm wide, 528.7 cm long, color on silk;

The painting scroll is the only survived artwork of Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan in the world, it is one of national treasures in China, now be collected in Beijing National Palace Museum.

Painting ‘Riverside Scene During The Qingming Festival’ in scroll form, with multiple vanishing points composition method, describing a vivid scenery of city living in China's 12 century.

Part of Painting ‘Riverside Scene During The Qingming Festival’

"The Qingming Festival By The Riverside’ Painting is a city scenery scroll describing the capital city of the Northern Song Bianjing, according to statistics, there are totally 1,659 varied characters, 209 animals in the painting, the number is larger than the character number in any of the China Four Classic Novels.

It captures the daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing, today's Kaifeng. The theme celebrates the festive spirit and worldly commotion at the Qingming Festival.

The entire piece was painted in hand scroll format and the content reveals the lifestyle of all levels of the society from rich to poor as well as different economic activities in rural areas and the city.

Part of Painting ‘Riverside Scene During The Qingming Festival’

The painting is famous because of its geometrically accurate images of boats, bridges, shops, and scenery. Because of its fame, it has been called "China's Mona Lisa".

From the painting we can get a glimpse at the prosperous city scenery of the Northern Song Dynasty with contiguous tea houses, bistros, diners and arch bridges over the Bian river, crowds of people going out to make a spring outing, as well as varied characters, such as vendors and peddlers, jugglers, paupers and beggars, monks, fortune tellers and seers, innkeepers, metalworkers and carpenters and so on. The scenery on the painting is so dazzling and dizzying.

The city size and prosperity degree of the North Song Dynasty is supreme than any other country at that time, as the current World Expo in Shanghai is themed with 'City Life', so if you go to the China Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, you will see such a famous painting describing scenery of ancient Chinese city.

* Original address of this China gift post: China Gift and Fine Arts & Crafts in China