The five-color parrot painting by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty is currently collected by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA.
The picture of Song Huizong's five-color parrot is ink and color on silk. The dimensions are vertical: 53.3 and horizontal: 125.1 cm. The painting depicts two branches of apricot blossoms, with a parrot of five colors perched on the branch. The brushwork is delicate and delicate, and the colors are rich and vivid. It is similar to the "Picture of Birds with Body of Winter Plum", which is a delicate and elegant style. Because of the inscription written by Huizong Zhao Ji, it has always been in Huizong's name. However, contemporary scholars generally believe that it was actually made by a professional painter from the painting academy at that time, which reflects the level of flower-and-bird painting creation in Huizong's painting academy. On the right side of the painting, there is a preface and poem written in a thin gold book by Zhao Ji. Its form is similar to that of "Xianglong Stone Picture". Some scholars further speculate that this work is one of the "Xuanhe Ruilan Volume". The painting bears the seal of "Treasure of the Celestial Calendar" of Emperor Wenzong of the Yuan Dynasty, the seal of Dai Mingshuo of the Qing Dynasty, the seal of the Song Dynasty, and the imperial seal of the Qianlong and Jiaqing Imperial Households of the Qing Dynasty, as recorded in the "First Collection of Shiqu Baoji". Zhao Ji's "Five-Colored Parrot" is one of the most representative works of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty.
Huizong of the Song Dynasty was best at sketching and calligraphy. He carefully depicted the sideways heroic posture of a parrot. The bird was perched on a branch of blooming apricot blossoms, looking content and carefree. The difference between Huizong's painting method and the flower-and-bird painting of the Southern Song Dynasty is that Huizong did not intend to rely on exaggerated compositions or deliberately create the decoration and dynamics of the picture to win. Instead, he painted apricot flowers truthfully without any pretense or pretense. Parrots have a natural look and demeanor. This painting is very high in expression skills. Regardless of whether it is an early work or a late work by Song Huizong, this "Five-Colored Parrot" is relatively high. This painting is a heavy color painting. It is convenient to make a heavy color painting thick, but it is not easy to make it clear and transparent. The color design of this painting is very harmonious, and the technique of thickness is well controlled. Use stone green on the base of ink. Because stone green is a mineral pigment, it is easy to have a powdery air on the painting, but it does not have this kind of powdery air. (Referring to the back of the parrot) This piece is very light and thin, and the brushwork looks very vivid. The hook lines of the branches are very strong and the pen is full of variety. The strokes are heavier, with the nail heads slightly exposed, and the strokes are drawn from top to bottom. If the brushwork is the same, it will be very rigid, but it is too dissimilar to form a continuous branch. In this painting, the nail heads in the tree stem are somewhat obvious and some not. , very casual, with a wonderful natural change in it.
Part of Song Huizong’s five-color parrot picture: