Up the River During Qingming

This handscroll (also attributed to Zhang Zeduan) is shorter than “(Up the River During) Qingming in Brief,” the scenery here beginning with the bridal procession and followed by pulling boats by rope, the arched bridge and market scene, rows of shops, area around the city walls, a mansion along the city streets, and the imperial Lake Jinming. The structure of these two scrolls is similar and the details more or less the same. Some of the major differences are the tower on the city wall featuring masonry brick construction, greater detail and refinement, and the gate changed in direction to make it frontal to the viewer. The washes of color in this scroll are light and the expressions of the figures dramatic, the proportions also naturalistic with the horse and donkey forms elongated to emphasize their strength. The areas of earth were washed with heavier colors of blue and green, the outlines of the forms discontinuous and chaotic. As a whole, however, the brushwork is not very steady and the structures are somewhat loose. The buildings also appear to be flatter. Thus, judging from the painting method, it is probably a later imitation of “Up the River During Qingming” from the Ming dynasty.