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ZHAO MENGFU
AS CATALOGUED IN
SHIQU BAOJI
WASHING HORSES
Zhao Mengfu is one of China’s best known painters of horses, which he depicted as individual
portraits and in large numbers. The latter, with the animals walking, prancing, rolling, and
playing, along with their grooms and set in a broad, level landscape is a convention that extends to
the Tang dynasty. Just as the Tang emperors relied on their steeds for the growth and control of their
empire, so, too, did Zhao Mengfu’s Mongol employers. Zhao’s horse paintings derived from his study
of the works of Han Gan (706-783) and Li Gonglin (1049-1106), whose paintings he owned. Zhao
studied not only Han Gan’s method of outlining and coloring in the animal’s forms but also how to
depict their spirit. Li Gonglin’s long handscrolls flled with large herds of horses in an open landscape,
such as Pasturing Horses in the Palace Museum, Beijing, are credited with inspiring Zhao Mengfu’s
compositions flled with numerous equines.
趙孟頫是中國最著名畫馬專家之一，描繪獨馬和群馬皆精。後者刻畫各種馬的動態：散步、跳躍、翻滾、玩
耍，以至於和馬夫的互動，活現在廣闊平遠的畫面上，繼承唐朝的畫風。正如唐朝皇帝依賴戰馬以增長和控
制他們的帝國，趙孟頫所在時期的蒙古主子也一樣，趙孟頫從家藏的唐朝韓幹和宋朝李公麟的作品研究所
得，不僅學習了韓幹勾畫動物線條形態和著色方法，還懂得如何表現帶出動物的神態。而現藏北京故宮博
物院的李公麟 《臨韋偃牧放》圖卷，描寫群馬放牧於遼闊草原的壯觀景色，這作品正是孕育及營養趙孟頫
群馬構圖的主要靈感。
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