This scroll, housed in the Taipei National Palace Museum, depicts a wintry landscape blanketed in snow. A gnarled pine tree, rendered with Ma Yuan’s signature “hanging branch technique” (拖枝), dominates the foreground, its iron-like limbs contrasting with blooming plum blossoms symbolizing resilience and elegance. A scholar rides across a bridge toward a pavilion, accompanied by shivering attendants whose hunched postures evoke the biting cold.
The rocks are outlined with bold “axe-cut texture strokes” (斧劈皴), their angular forms softened by wet-ink washes to mimic snowdrifts. Distant mountains fade into misty expanses, while the stark interplay of ink tones—charcoal-black pines against snow-white voids—embodies the “pure clarity of winter” prized in literati aesthetics. Though bearing Ma Yuan’s seal, the stiff brushwork (e.g., trembling lines for architecture) and formulaic composition suggest a Ming-dynasty artist imitating the “Ma-Xia” style.
This work bridges Southern Song lyrical minimalism and Ming reinterpretations, offering insights into Ma Yuan’s enduring influence and the evolution of “academy-style” landscape painting.
