After Zhao Bosu’s Latter Ode on the Red Cliff

After Zhao Bosu’s Latter Ode on the Red Cliff

• Image Number: K2A001055N000000000PAF
• Dynasty: Ming dynasty
• Category: Paintings
• Author: Wen Zhengming;文徵明
• Form: 卷
• Exhibition dimension: 31.5×541.6
• Description:
  Wen Zhengming (1470-1559) was the most influential painter of the Wu School in the 16th century. This volume takes Su Shi’s “Fu on the Later Red Cliff” as its text, which is divided into eight paragraphs, describing Su Shi and two friends travelling back to Red Cliff with wine and fish. The whole painting is light green. Although it is imitated from Zhao Boju, the lines and pens under the paint are transparent and layered, which is closer to the scholar green tradition of Zhao Mengfu of the Yuan Dynasty. The figures in the painting have simple lines, while the rocks are stacked compactly and richly, showing the ease and elegance of the literati facing the wonders. The painting dates to Jiajing and Wushen (1548). Wen was seventy-nine years old at that time, which was his masterpiece in his later years.