无上清凉——苏州博物馆藏青绿与雪景绘画展

序

       唐代张彦远《历代名画记》记载：东汉刘褒曾画《云汉图》，人见之觉热；又画《北风图》,人见之觉凉。

       青绿绘画，主要指以矿物颜料石青、石绿敷色的作品，有大青绿、小青绿之分。前者盛行于唐以前，画法以双钩廓填为主，少皴笔、着色重，或辅之以金碧勾线，富丽堂皇，代表画家如唐之李思训、宋之赵伯驹、明之仇英等人；后者则流行元代以后，画法是在水墨淡色的基础上薄罩青绿，清丽淡秀，具有文人趣味，代表画家有元之赵孟頫、明之文徵明、仇英等。

       北风凛冽，飞雪数尺，千峰失翠，万木僵寒，本是天地一奇观。古之高人逸士，每每喜写雪景，以寄托岁寒明洁之意。自唐以来，画家即有雪溪雪竹、江山雪霁、雪江归棹、卧雪煮茶、踏雪访友之图。唐之王维、宋之李成、元之黄公望、明之文徵明皆有所作。

       古代文人书斋中常有悬挂雪景与青绿以销夏的习惯。兹岁气候异常，立秋已过，而尚酷热难当，故本期展览特从馆藏中遴选此两类作品合璧展出，以为观者拂暑静心之一助焉。

Supreme Coolness——Green-and-Blue Landscape Paintings and Snow Scenery Paintings Collected by Suzhou Museum

Preface

In the book of Notes of Past Famous Paintings by Zhang Yanyuan of Tang Dynasty, it is mentioned that Liu Bao of Easten Han Dynasty had ever drawn Summer Cloud, people feel warm when they observed the painting; he also had another painting, North Wind, people have a cool feeling when observing.

Blue-and-green landscape paintings refer to the works that apply color with mineral hues of azurite and malachite. So-called big blue-and-green and small blue-and-green are its two styles. The former one was popular before Tang Dynasty. Technique of this painting is to mainly draw the outlines and fill in colors, less texturing brushstrokes. These paintings have obvious characters of strong coloring. Golden and green outlines are used to show grandeur. Li Sixun of Tang Dynasty, Zhao Boju of Song Dynasty and Qiu Ying of Ming Dynasty are representative painters of this style. Small blue-and-green paintings became popular after the Yuan Dynasty. The thin blue-and-green color will be overlapped on the base of light ink of the painting. Clear and fresh styles of these paintings were appreciated by the Chinese literati. Zhao Mengfu of Yuan Dynasty, Wen Zhengming and Qiu Ying of Ming Dynasty are the representative painters.

Chilly wind, flying snow, grey mountains and withered trees are original natural spectacles. Ancient masters and scholars liked to paint snow scenes, trying to express that their morality is as pure as the white snow. Since the Tang Dynasty, the painter has painted different snow scenes, including snow-covered streams, snow-covered bamboos, snow-covered mountains, boat returning on snow-covered river, crouching on snow and boiling tea, and visiting friends in the snow. Great painters like Wang Wei of Tang Dynasty, Li Cheng of Song Dynasty, Huang Gongwang of Yuan Dynasty and Wen Zhengming of Ming Dynasty, all have snow-themed painting shanded down through the generations.

Ancient scholars were used to hanging paintings of snow scenes and blue-and-green landscapes in summer for cooling. This year's climate is anomaly. After the beginning of autumn, it is still very hot. Therefore, this exhibit especially displays selected paintings of these two types in the hope to bring our visitors a cool breeze in this hot weather.