Zhan Ziqian

CHINA, Hebei, Cangzhou; Northern Zhou to Sui dynasty

Zhan Ziqian was a painter from Bohai (present day Yanshan, Cangzhou). He served as an advisory officer in the imperial court and an assistant to the general. Adept in the painting of landscapes, pavilions, towers, carriages, horses, figures, he was equally famous as Dong Boren; together, they were renowned as Dong-Zhan.
Xuanhe Catalog of Paintings described Zhan’s works as “The perspective of his portrayal of rivers and mountains was especially elaborate, thus showing the distance of a thousand miles on a foot-long scale.” He greatly altered the use of landscape backgrounds in figure paintings, often displaying scenes of “figures that are larger than mountains, and water that is too small for boating.” The gold-green landscape painting method used by Li Sixun and Li Zhaodao of the Tang dynasty (618–907) was styled after the works of Zhan, who was honored as the Patriarch of Tang Painting by later generations.
Also renowned in the painting of Buddhist images, Zhan’s works were recorded in Painting Annals of the Zhenguan Period including Illustration of the Lotus Sutra, Southern Suburbs, and Horses, Carriages, and People in Chang’an. Paintings recorded in Famous Paintings in History include the mural paintings in the east hall of Chongsheng Temple in Shaanxi; mural of Distribution of Relics Among the Eight Kings on the east wall of West Chan Courtyard at Longxing Temple and Tiannu Temple mural in Henan; and two Bodhisattva murals outside the main hall of Ganlu Temple in Zhejiang. Xuanhe Catalog of Paintings also listed 20 of his paintings, including Shi Le Asking About the Dharma, Vimalakirti, and Illustration of the Lotus Sutra. Spring Excursion, which is currently kept at Palace Museum in Beijing, is purported to be painted by him.