In the Liaoning Provincial Museum. by Contrast, Riverbank Stands Virtu

133 Summer Mountains (Qi, fig. 3), in the Liaoning Provincial Museum.14 By contrast, Riverbank stands virtu Shih Positioning ally alone, and lacks an auxiliary body of works that will support the claim to authorship by Dong Yuan. Riverbank Therefore, even if the above analysis safely locates the painting's date in the tenth century, its authorship still appears uncertain. In attempting a thematic approach in our inquiry into the connection of this work with Dong Yuan, we should not limit ourselves solely to Dong Yuan attributions, but instead must expand our focus to include the larger context of works by Southern Tang court painters. The paintings we have already discussed in connection with the dating of Riverbank, namely, First Snow along the River and The Lofty Scholar Liang Boluan, are both by Southern Tang court painters. They are, as is Riverbank, depictions of scenes oflife in southeast China. Water is depicted in these paintings, but in addition, detailed wave patterns model the river's surface. Lofty Scholar (fig. 6) displays an especially close similarity with Riverbank. Both paintings depict reclusive life in architectural settings within a distinct space along a riverbank, a feature rarely found in early landscape painting from north China. Lofty Scholar places narrative content, the story of Lady Meng Guang and her husband Liang Hong of the Eastern Han, within a landscape setting of fantastic rock formations. 15 Riverbank's rock formations are also fantastic in shape, and similarly lack the smoothness of Wintry Groves and Layered Banks. It is also rich in its depiction of scenes of human activity, featuring such details as a herdboy on a water buffalo heading home, a kitchen where women are preparing food, and the lord of the manor relaxing in a pavilion at the river's edge, accom panied by his wife and child. Although the story it represents may not be obvious, the painting clearly has a narrative quality. In this respect, it is similar to Xiao Yi Seizing the Lanting Manuscript, attributed to Dong Yuan's follower Juran, which also features a large mansion on a riverbank and such scenes of human activ ity as the lord of the mansion seated in a waterside pavilion, with monks and visitors outside and a figure on horseback galloping across a bridge toward the mansion (fig. r8; Cahill, fig. 22). It is impossible to say whether these details are in any way connected to the story of how Xiao Yi obtained by trickery Wang Xizhi's (ca. 303-ca. 36r) calligraphic masterwork, the Lanting Preface, but the narrative content of the paint ing cannot be denied. Although Juran was influenced by northern landscape styles after his arrival in the Northern Song capital Kaifeng, following the fall of the Southern Tang,16 this painting largely preserves an earlier landscape style. It seems probable that this type of landscape painting, imbued with a very strong narrative quality, was popular at the Southern Tang court. By contrast, all extant early landscapes from the northern tradition, such as Fan Kuan's Travelers amid Streams and Mountain/7and Guo Xi's Early Spring, though depicting travelers and fishermen, lack a similar profusion of narrative detail. Thus, in its narrative quality, there appears to be a close connection between Riverbank and the Southern Tang court. .

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