Snow-Covered Scene and Cold Forest

Snow-Covered Scene and Cold Forest is a great landscape hanging scroll almost two meters high. It is one of the masterpieces of Northern Song dynasty landscape painting that reproduces the impressive majesty, stillness, and cold of the northern Chinese wilderness. The image is dominated by a large mountain at the center surrounded by lesser rocky formations. On the left side, the artists painted dense groves of bare, dead trees, which grow out of the snow-covered soil of the valley at the foot of the mountain. In the distant ravines and gaps in the forest, one can see some man-made structures such as a temple complex, frontier passes, and pavilions, as well as streams, frozen paths, and rivers. Tiny figures of travelers are barely visible along the rugged mountain path, which makes one realize the vastness and power of nature and the helplessness of humans in the face of nature’s might. Fan Kuan rendered the effect of cold stone and snowy weather with remarkable precision. The artist used short, heavily inked “raindrop” brushstrokes (yudian cun) to depict the rocky, cracked surface of the mountainous terrain. The dark ink washes were applied to the sky and the background, rendering the desired effect in combination with the white silk of the hanging scroll. The alternation of the black ink used in the mountains and the absence of color on the silk creates the illusion of fresh snow that covers tree branches and mountain peaks.