Liu Songnian’s Four Scenery Landscape Atlas

[Liu Songnian’s Four Scenery Landscape Map Volume]

The Four Scenery Mountain Water Map Volume, written by Liu Songnian in the Southern Song Dynasty, is a silk version with color, 40 cm vertically and 69 cm horizontally
The picture in this volume is divided into four sections, which respectively depict the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter
The first picture shows a spring outing with blooming spring flowers and lush willows
The second picture, cool, summer wood shade, green lotus spots
The third picture, viewing the mountains, is clear in autumn, and the frost leaves are stained
The fourth picture is about enjoying the snow. The mountain is wrapped in silver, and everything is quiet
The picture is centered on the activities of the characters, combined with the techniques of boundary painting, and carefully constructed buildings such as courtyards, terraces and pavilions, which are neat and exquisite, either rich or simple. The stone is carved with a small axe. It is elegant and vigorous. The color of the brush is rigorous and the method is emphasized. The characters in the painting are small but complete in shape and spirit. The whole painting is ancient and simple in appearance, with exquisite and strict brushwork, which is very characteristic of the works of the Southern Song Painting Academy. Lin’an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province), as the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, has a lot of garden villas built by high-ranking officials and dignitaries. Liu Songnian, as a painter of the painting academy, has been living for many years, which is naturally easy to describe. This picture is intended to show the rich and comfortable life of the gentry bureaucrats. The painter’s attention has shifted from the natural wild charm of the mountains and rivers to the artificially created and decorated scenery. This change in the theme style reflects from the side a large number of bureaucrats who did not want to recover the country during the Southern Song Dynasty, focusing on the life attitude of pleasure. As the poem goes, “The warm wind makes tourists drunk, and only makes Hangzhou Bianzhou”.