Along the River during Ching-Ming Festival 清明上河圖 Chinese Painting Scroll (HD)

[sprucelake7]

One reason this painting is exciting is that there doesn't seem to be anything equivalent to it in Western art, where a group of highly talented painters worked as a closely knit team. There were collaborations of two artists, such as Landseer livening up one of Turner's dull landscapes with a little black dog. In Western art the emphasis is on the individual. The more the painting is a "signature" that easily identifies an artist, the more money can be potentially made by the galleries.

[artvirtue]

This painting is a good example of 散點透視 (Cavalier Perspective, Multi-Point Perspective, or Multi-Vanishing Point Perspective) - the Chinese perspective used in brush painting.

[sprucelake7]

If several painters worked on this, then it shows an amazing degree of cooperaton.

[artvirtue]

Usually a painting like this, ordained by the Emperor and painted by several court painters, they have to cooperate to meet the Emperor's favor and expectations. They could not paint as freely as the literati painters.

[sprucelake7]

The range of artistic talent in this scroll is amazing, at the highest level ,from natural features to architectural, not to forget those wonderful boats, all joined with the flowing rythm of the river, just amazing. The range in use of color, from the bright and festive to the muted and restrained, is also impressive, as well as the variety and vitality in the figures. Truly a great work of art.

[artvirtue]

This painting was done by several painters. If we pay close attentions, there are some insignificant differences between their styles and approaches. The horizontal layout ("landscape") of Chinese painting as wide as this (about 10 or 11 meters) uses different perspectives from Western painting.