Scroll of Dragon Boat Winning

[Dragon Boat Winning the Championships]

The Dragon Boat Winning the Championships Volume, yuan, paper, ink, 25 cm vertically and 114.6 cm horizontally
This painting has no author’s style, but has the collection marks of the Qianlong and Jiaqing Inner Mansions of the Qing Dynasty
The painting pavilions in the ink line and line drawing world reflect the most typical new style of architectural painting in the Yuan Dynasty. Wang Zhenpeng, a court painter, is the representative of this style. He has painted the “Dragon Boat Race in Jinmingchi” volume twice, describing the grand scene of the royal family holding the dragon boat race in Jinmingchi, the backyard of the court, during the Chongning period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1102-1106). Because Wang Zhenpeng was very famous and praised by the eldest princess of his family at that time, he attracted later generations to copy. Up to now, there are still as many as seven or eight copies of the copies and altered picture books handed down. This scroll of strokes is beautiful and delicate. The pure use of line drawing and the abandonment of color rendering make the picture more complicated without blocking congestion, giving people a feeling of delicacy, clarity and elegance. The towering pavilions, dragon boats competing for boats, flags hunting, paddles racing, dynamic boats and numerous character activities break the silence of the static pavilions, endow the tense plot and warm atmosphere of the flat architectural paintings, and reflect the style characteristics of Wang Zhenpeng’s architectural paintings. As Yu Ji commented, “The beauty of Zhenpeng’s learning lies in the boundary painting. The square and round are straight, and the curve is full of its body, while the air is flying, which is not restricted by the law.”