Dong Yuan's Riverbank Essay

Introduction

The form of this essay is directed at several views and facts that Riverbank is a fabricated picture. Several scholars have addressed the issue of Riverbank authenticity. The main material that one is expected to read is the article by James Cahill’s article entitled “The Case against Riverbank. The second article one to read is Maxwell Hearn’s piece entitled, “A Comparative Physical Analysis of Riverbank and Two Zhang Daqian Forgeries. The comparative analysis helps one in building an argument on the art and reading other people’s view of the picture. One can choose from the varsity number of articles that are available. Reading several articles that are available enriches one knowledge hence better prepared for the class debate. All the material one reads helps one come up with imagery. The analyzing of the image is the best way to make one understand it thoroughly and discuss the picture in depth.

DongYuan's Riverbank

The dongYuan River Bank is a Chinese painting that comprises of a hanging scroll in the color of a silk. The artist of the image is known as Wang, who is also a collector. It is one the best works of painting in China. However, several people and painters challenge the image in China. They argue the work is a counterfeit and is not an original painting. The say Wang acquired the work hence making the picture, not a masterpiece. In this regard, it makes one think that the painting is a modern forgery. Several magazines such as New York Times disapprove the painting saying it is not the original work of Wang but a forgery.
Several paintings such as the Palace Museum in Beijing and Zheng paintings are both problematic in terms of dating and relationship with DongYuan painting. An argument is made for brushing a technique to counter them. Chinese landscape generally affects painting of certain regions. The results of the painting are having a viewer eye that is curved hence one can spot the direct movement. In comparison to the Riverbank, it is strokeless and when one rubs it with ink on the silk. Producing a dissimilar texturing that is light and inconsistent. The texturing makes the interrelationships unreadable in several areas. There are signs that the picture has been altered, and the outcome lacks control on how it was painted. It is often attributed to forgery. The Riverbank comes out badly when it is compared with Zhas work when they are put on a test of originality. Zhao Gan work is a masterpiece that is distinct and never blurring (Maxwell K. Hearn and Wen C. Fong 1999).
The family scene that is present in the Riverbank painting is not a common phenomenon in the tenth century. It is out of the picture for the early monumental landscape of China. It is another feature that rules out the painting as an original work. It makes the painting, seem forgery.
In that regard, I hold the view the painting is a modern-day falsification. In order to fully understand modern imitation, we must examine the assumptions that are made by people and artists concerning the piece of art. James Cahill, an author of the article “Some Aspects of the Tenth Century Painting as seen in modern painting, draws a central enigma on the painting. In the article, he states explicitly that the mode of presentation of that picture seems to have been forgotten a long time ago. In that argument, it makes the river bank painting to fail to fit in the representation art of China. In the art River Bank, the upper part is obscure. There must be a river that turns into an invisible road that people walk on it.
The concept of the representation of the nature and naturalism in the picture is historical. Wu Hung considers stylistic analysis when analyzing the Chinese art. He challenges the analyzing that have taken part in the western painting model. In terms of dating the model, the picture must focus on Chinese art history. The art history are influenced by stylistic changes influences and creativity.
The scenery in the art Riverbank is organized in a price method. There is sloping on the two sides of the mountain that is followed by a series of a V-shaped pockets. They twist in the land. Cahill description on what must be of a distant river that turns out to be a road with people walking on it turns out to be a misreading scene in the scene. The additive and early song landscape represent the painting (James Cahill, 1978).
Riverbank art is believed to be a recent fabrication work by Zhang. However, several factors make it hard for one to believe that is Zhang, who painted the art. The quality of the picture, style and chronology of the works is very different from the works of Zhang. It is a tenth century work that makes use of painting techniques that were used several centuries later. It questions Dong Yuan work of the tenth century. However, it is impossible to rule out that the work is a modern fabrication since they are few records if any of tenth century painting. Zhang work forgeries are very different from others hence ruling out the fact that it was Zhang work. Several artists doubt the work and say if it is Zhang work then it must be his finest work he has ever done in history.
Chinese landscape painting describing the work of Dong Yuan should be seen in a distance. The brush work can be sketchy. However, the disadvantages are when one looks the image in a close up does not seem appealing to the eyes but if one looks from a distance can see a village in the obscure depths. It is a modern forgery because Chinese landscape painting evolves in three stages. Wei Xina states drawing by contrast is a painting that is about reclusive living. People are living together. Reclusive living is an accurate reflection of the Chinese fucian ideas that were practiced in the old days. Reclusion is the deliberate nonparticipation of government affairs by educated people and people who held education ranks. During the crises that lead to the fall of the Tang dynasty, many of the scholars who were involved rejected a political involvement in the affairs of the country, and they opted to retire in the mountains. Reclusion was practiced mainly in the north and southern part of the China. Loft scholars were left amidst a panel of six. It was the screen that decorated the Southern Tag Palace Hall. It brings a reason to believe that River Bank too was similarly executed in the Southern Tang court.
The art in the literature is one that is characterized by a deep melancholic longing for the past. It is according to the poem by Li Yu. The melody of the rhyme is one that ushers the majestic landscape of the Riverbank. The Chinese landscape painting evokes a descriptive lyric of the poem. In his critical form analysis of the picture, Wu Hung contrast the western stylistic analysis of the images to the ancient monuments that make use of the Chinese antiquarian approach. The art brings doubts if it is indeed a tenth century painting. A picture should be shaped according to the environment that shaped it. The picture when embedded in the correct time that it is drawn it brings into perspective a different culture and environment that is different from the Chinese environment of the tenth century. In that, it makes the picture be more of a modern day forgery that an authentic early painting.
The dense forests in the picture together with the ribbons that are provided show a weave structure that is wholly different from the ordinary setting of a river bank. The silk used in the picture shows a very dense structure that wraps the forest around. The plain weave found from other drawings dates back to mid-eleventh century and not tenth century when the painting was drawn.
In order to fully understand the historical approach that is used to explain the Riverbank painting. One has to understand the early Chinese art history. It is a well know portrait as a genre that is picked up in the Tang dynasty. The Riverbank painting creates the picture that is between two defining chapter of the Chinese art history (See Wu Hung, 1989).
The late Tang and Southern Tang of both the tenth and ninth century and are generally the constituting periods of political and social turmoil of the artist decline. There is an unprecedented engagement of both phases that is not matched in the landscape building. The faces of the mountains in the picture are followed by a natural forces that show it was easy to penetrate the realms. The development of the naturalistic representations of the partial realism in the riverbank story depicts the period in the Chinese history where technological advances starts. There is a neo- Confucian investigations of thongs that have stimulated the objective history.
In contrast to the dense forests, the two ribbons that are used in the picture show a more labor intensive activity. Riverbank hundreds of cracks that are found have been reinforced with paper strips. It questions the originality of the painting. The reconstructions of the picture make one think of the portrait as a modern day forgery compared to an original painting.

References

Cahill. J, Parting at the shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle Ming Dynasty, 1368-1580( NewYork and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1978).
Hearn. M and Wen C. Fong, Along the Riverbank: Chinese painting from C.C. Wang Family Collection (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of art, 1999).