Travelers Amid Mountains and Streams
3 min readPainter: Fan Kuan
Painting Year: the Northern Song Dynasty
Material: silk scroll
Dimension: vertical length of 206.5 centimeters and horizontal length of 103.3 centimeters
Collection Place: the National Palace Museun in Taipei Travelers Anid Mountains and Streams is representative artwork of Fan Kuan,a famous landscape painter in the Northern Song Dynasty. This is also excellent representative artwork born in peak period of Chinese painting of landscape.
This artwork depicts majestic mountain landscape in Shaanxi. High peaks rise steeply and towers uprightly, and waterfalls fall from azure sky. There are rows of trees on the mountain. Streams fow from the mountain.
Packers slowly walk along mountainous path.
Thick ink is used to depict rigid stones and outline dense forests. Thick ink color achieves desolate effect, which gives the aesthetic feeling for towing and majestic peaks, and vividly demonstrates the magnifcence of northern landscape.
Panoramic painting of landscape
Panoramic painting of landscape is a view-taking approach for painting of landscape. It features many landscape scenes, broad vision, farness and broadness. Travelers Amid Mountains and Streams (Fan Kuan) is an example in this regard. Different from panoramic painting of landscape,”corner painting of landscape”merely depicts a corner of landscape, with few scenes and narrow vision.
GeneralKnowledge
Painting of landscape in northern style and painting of landscape in southern style Painting of landscape in northern style focuses on the northern landscape characterized by few water, few clouds, few trees and exposed, rigid, dry and steep rocks. This forms the features of painting of landscape in northern style.
Painting of landscape in southern style focuses on the northern landscape characterized by plenty of rain, many rivers and lakes, many clouds, verdant trees, few exposed rocks and many soft mountains consisting of mud and mud stone. This forms the features of painting of landscape in southern style.
Art Master
Fan Kuan
Fan Kuan was a famous landscape painter in the Northern Song Dynasty. With unknown birth date and deathdate, he was a native of Huayuan(today’s Yao County, Shaanxi). He was good at painting of landscape which featured”bold and magnifcent peaks in vivid style.”He enjoyed lofty reputation for”lifelike landscape.”
Anecdote
Young Fan Kuan could create almost genuine artwork According to the legend, Mi Fu,a calligrapher, painter and connoisseur of the Northern Song Dynasty, visited Dantu. When he came to a temple on the mountain, he saw a painting in monk dorm. This painting depicted towering peaks, dense trees, fowing streams and jagged rocks of grotesque shapes with imposing manner, robust brushwork and dark ink. Mi Fu believed that it was a panoramic painting of landscape made by Jing Hao,a master for painting of landscape. When he walked closely and carefully watched at the local part, he found the inscription of”Fan Kuan from Huayuan”, he knew that he made a mistake. In youth period, Fan Kuan copied the original painting made by Jing Hao superbly so that Mi Fu had diffculty in verifcation.
named as”Fan Mountain towers with indomitable Dense on top of mountain.
In quiet place of valley，waterfalls fall.tom azure A pavilion hides
—and appears among the trees.
There are rows of trees in order on the mountain.
imposing charm.
mountain foot and flow一rommountains，and gurgling sound.Rigid mountainous stones are bold andAeam of packers slowly walks along soid.
mountainous path.
A team of packers slowly walks along mountainous path. In the quiet mountain,a team of people drive donkeys and horses to pass through the forest from the right part. Hoofbeat seems to resound. In the nature, this team of packers is small and ulnerable. From which, arduousness and difficulty in the travel are demonstrated so that people can have association of ideas that life is also an arduous path.
The feeling for vicissitudes of life arises spontaneously.
