Crossing a Bridge over a Stream

Dai Jin, a native of Qiantang in Zhejiang, was the founder of the Zhe School of landscape painting in the Ming dynasty. Upheld by later generations as its standard bearer, his style became a model and he venerated as the Zhe School patriarch. The foreground of this painting depicts a roaring torrent with rocks dispersed therein and a cliff in the background. A mountain rises behind as the area to the right opens to reveal a wide expanse of water with sails in the far distance. Fishermen go about their livelihood in an ideal scene of peace and leisure. The diagonal composition derives from the landscape arrangement developed in the Southern Song Painting Academy. The lines and moss dots of the trees, however, are done with hoary and solid brushwork that reflects the literati manner associated with such Yuan dynasty artists as Wu Zhen (1280-1354) and Sheng Mao. The outlines of the trees and rocks feature great speed and bravura. The painting as a whole combines classical spiritedness with quick untrammeledness, being a typical example of Dai Jin's style integrating the virtues of various artists to which he added his own.