Han Yun was the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty and a famous painter at that time. His painting "Five Cows" is known as one of China's top ten famous paintings and has high artistic and historical value.
There is a folk story about the Korean painting "Five Cows", which is a bit legendary and accidental. It is said that one day the weather was very good and the sun was shining brightly, so Han Yun wanted to travel to the countryside. When I went to the countryside, I saw cows grazing and shepherds playing around. It was a leisurely and contented scene, which was very interesting.
Han Yun looked at the eagerly running cattle, croaking with their longitudinal toes, licking their tongues backwards, or lowering their heads to find grass. He couldn't help but see God. After returning home, what he saw during the day lingered in his mind. The emotion in his heart was beyond words at that time, so Han Yun decided to paint the scene at that time.
With this plan in mind, Han Yun began to concentrate on painting. It took more than a month to finally complete this famous painting. The five cows painted above have different shapes, fatness and thinness, different colors, and specific images. Some of the five cows in the picture look as if there is no one around, while others stand on tiptoes and cry, as if calling for their departing companions. There is also a cow walking slowly, seemingly towards the farmland and back from the farmland, which is endlessly memorable.
Han Yun’s paintings express the simple folk customs of rural areas with solemn brushstrokes. The most subtle thing is that viewers can clearly see their simple, strong, simple, stubborn and diligent characters from the postures and eyes of the five cows.
With superb skills and high artistic value, it was still treasured by the imperial court until the Song Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, due to the war, he lived among the people and was finally collected by the calligrapher Zhao Mengxu. Zhao Meng was overjoyed to get this treasure. Please give a mention to "Five Cows Picture" and praise him for his high-spirited and rare writing.
Of course, Han Yun’s paintings are more than this one: "Five Cows", but due to the vagaries of the world, the ups and downs of history, and the constant wars in the past dynasties, there is only this one: "Five Cows" has never been lost, although The disaster was profound. Now this painting is collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing and has become one of the rare Tang Dynasty paintings in the Palace Museum. It is a national treasure.
Becoming one of the top ten famous paintings handed down from generation to generation in China is enough to illustrate the value of this painting. It’s because there are so many treasures in the Palace Museum. If they were placed in other museums, they would definitely be treasures. Because of the value of "Five Cows", many people think it is the pinnacle of Han Lian's works. But this is actually a wrong view. "Five Cows" is indeed excellent, but it is not the highest representative of Han Lian's painting skills.
Han Yun is not only an expert in cattle and animal painting, but also has profound attainments and unique style in figure painting. Moreover, judging from the existing historical data, Han Tao's achievements in figure paintings are obviously higher than those of cattle and animal paintings.
Although it is called Han Lian's "Painting Cows", Han Lian is classified as a figure, not an animal. It can be seen that Han Lian's main works and artistic achievements are still in figure painting.
Among the 36 Korean paintings in the imperial palace of the Northern Song Dynasty, more than half were pastoral scenes, more than one-third were figures, and there were only four paintings of cattle and livestock. Judging from this record, it is the pastoral style and characters that are the main content of Han Lian's paintings. Not only are they numerous in quantity, but they are also highly accomplished and are all fine products.
Middle and late Tang Dynasty painter Cheng Xiu once commented on Han Yun's figure paintings, believing that Han Yun's figure paintings even surpassed Zhang Xuan and Zhou Fang, who were famous for painting figures. Cheng Xiu said, "Zhou Wei undermined his rigor, and Zhang Xi'an made a big fuss, causing trouble for the Koreans!"! Deng Chun also said, "A gentleman's pommel and horse are not as good as Han Qian's, Buddha statues chase Wu Daozi, mountains and rivers are like Li Sixun, and people are like Korea "
For example, cow flowers can only be said to be a feature and specialty of Han Lian's paintings, not his specialty. South Korea's highest achievements should still be in its characters and pastoral style.