Blue-and-Green Landscape

青緑山水 / Tang tradition onward / Style / East Asian Painting

A Chinese landscape tradition using blue and green pigments on mountains and rocks, coordinated with outlines, ink texture and colour layers. Linked to Tang precedents and later reinterpretations, it is not simply a blue-green palette. Works differ in where colour is placed and how it interacts with the ink beneath.

Blue-and-Green Landscape — Wang Ximeng, A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, 1113 (detail) — Palace Museum, Beijing — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Wang Ximeng, A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, 1113 (detail) — Palace Museum, Beijing — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

  • Blue and green layers on peaks and rocks
  • Contours, colour and underlying ink create volume
  • Clouds, water and paths separate groups of mountains
  • Small buildings or figures contrast with large peaks

Best used for

  • Comparing ink and mineral colour across periods in a Chinese landscape exhibition
  • Organising a wide publication through groups of peaks, clouds and paths

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Dictionary entry

Type
Keep labels away from mountain contours and explicitly distinguish whole works from details.
Composition
Separate mountain groups with clouds or water, linking them through small paths and buildings.
Material
Test blue-green layers over ink drawing and texture without uniformly covering the entire surface.
Caution
A palette alone does not establish the tradition. Not every example has gold contours or thick opaque colour; distinguish later revivals and uncertain attributions.
Further study
National Palace Museum — Yuan blue-and-green landscapes / Wu Li — Green Mountains and White Clouds, 1668 / Wang Ximeng — A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains

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Cite this entry

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Link
https://indexstyle.org/styles/blue-green-landscape
Markdown
[Blue-and-Green Landscape — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/blue-green-landscape)
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<a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/blue-green-landscape">Blue-and-Green Landscape — IndexStyle</a>

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