Zhao 1 Justin Zhao Professor McKelway Art in China, Japan, and Korea 11 December 2012 Fishing on a Snowy River

(Unidentified Artist) and Its Expectations As I walked through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, hunting for a piece that I could write about for my essay, I stumbled upon Fishing on a Snowy River, painted by an unidentified artist during the Song Dynasty in China. It was at once a visually stunning piece, evoking the themes of nature, balance, and harmony common to thsat of Chinese landscapes of the Song era. Perking my interest, I continued to analyze the painting. The landscape of Fishing on a Snowy River depicts the natural elements of water, trees, rocks, and mountains. The artist also illustrates human figures, a dock, a boat, and two pavilions separated by the creek. It is somewhat difficult to make out due to the degradation of the silk scroll, but down by the shore of the snowy, ice-like river, we see a man boating across the river (presumably fishing) and two men on the shore walking back to land carrying fishing poles. In the pavilion elevated up above the river, we can see two men who seem to be leisurely conversing. The portrayal of these figures agrees with an important concept stated by Li Chengsou, As for the figures in landscapes, do not emphasize their size. . . . If there is resemblance, it is enough (163). The artist obeys this principle, saving his expressive detail for the landscape itself. Upon closer examination, the painting seems to follow many paradigms that are described in contemporary instructional landscape texts. The artist, for instance, employs deep distance, a term Kuo Hsi defines as a spatial effect of looking past [the mountain] to beyond

Zhao 2 through the use of three degrees of size a mountain appears larger than a tree and a tree larger than a man (168-169). The artist, furthermore, hides the bottom of the mountain by shrouding it in mist, adhering to another one of Kuo Hsis conventions that cautions against revealing the entirety of the mountain or else it will not seem high, instead, using mists to hide the mountains full size (169). On the left side of the scroll, the artist paints a concentrated collection of shrubbery and trees. These trees, however, seem to have been painted in several layers. Down by the river shore and rocks are bare trees that have already lost their leaves. As we move upwards, however, we see trees that are not yet bare, even with age-faded hints of red, yellow, and green, the colors of autumn. The third layer of trees consists of two towering pines that dominate over all other trees in both size and magnificence. Here, the artist appears to adhere to the words of painter Han Cho, who explains that pine trees are like noblemen; they are the elders (149). The two looming pines in Fishing on a Snowy River, indeed, are erect in bearing, tall and superior with branches spread out and hang[ing] downward, and . . .welcom[ing] the common trees, trees below the pines. It is clear that the artist took great care to show the noblemen-like qualities of pine trees in his painting. The artists use of both colors reminiscent of autumn and trees that are bare, which is reminiscent of winter, perked me to question the season that is depicted in the painting. Following Kuo Hsis rules about the seasons of landscapes, [Clouds and vapor] are genial in spring, profuse in summer, sparse in autumn, and somber in winter. . . . Autumn mountains are bright and clear, arrayed in colorful garments. Winter mountains are withdrawn in melancholy, apparently asleep (152). Kuo His elaborates, In autumn mountains, bright and clear leaves flutter and fall, and men are full of melancholy. In winter mountains, dark fogs dim and choke

Zhao 3 the scene, and men are full of loneliness (153). Fishing on a Snowy River, however, seems to combine aspects from both autumn and winter. On one hand, we see characteristics of autumn sparse vapor and colorful leaves of a throng of trees near the larger pavilion, but on the other hand, we see characteristics of winter the somber clouds that evoke a feeling of vastness and loneliness, trees bare of any leaves down by the river, and dormant mountains (as well as the river shores) drowned in wintery snow. These elements make an interesting statement about the season of the painting, suggesting perhaps that it is a landscape in the transition between autumn and winter. Pedagogy Kuo Hsi makes an important remark about landscape paintings: There is a proper way to paint a landscape. When spread out on an ambitious scale it should still have nothing superfluous. Restricted to a small view it should still lack nothing (151). That is to say that a landscape painting should not be excessive in detail, but should spare none of it. Fishing on a Snowy River has a peculiar progression of detail. If we take a step back to look at the painting as a whole, we can see that most of the paintings detail occurs in the bottom left. The large boulders on the rivers shore employ the use of careful broken ink technique using both dark and light tones to emphasize shape and texture. The pavilions and trees all possess an incredible amount of detail as well. Even of the two tall pines, the one on the right is carefully more faded than the other, which gives the viewer a sense of depth. The mountains and river, however beautiful, have no amount of detail comparable to the lower left side of the painting. The translucent ink strokes on the sides of the two larger mountains lend some perspective and grandeur, but the tallest third mountain in the distance is of a flat, single-dimensional surface. The rivers right shoreline, too, is of a single and smooth brush stroke, deprived of any shore

Zhao 4 detail that appears on the rivers left shore. This simplification of the detailed mountain motifs traditionally seen in the Song dynastys standard paintings leaves almost a sense of incompleteness about the work. Though covered in snow, the mountains are surprisingly undetailed with little artistic effort to express the texture or spiritual characteristics of the mountain that we would traditionally expect. There is, however, still a significant sense of greatness about the work. Through a visual analysis, Ive evaluated many elements of Fishing on a Snowy River in the context of contemporary instructional texts about painting landscapes. While it is evident that Fishing on a Snowy River employs many of the ideas expressed in these landscape texts, it is clear that this artist had a different idea about the portrayal of the mountains and river, using what appears to be simplified motifs and brush formulas from the traditional Song style. Nevertheless, the monumental landscape still evokes a powerful feeling of vastness and peaceful harmony with nature. Displayed amidst its peer paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fishing on a Snowy River is both traditional and unique as a landscape painting.

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