Picture of the New Year

Picture of the New Year is ink painted onto a silk scroll by Zhao Chang sometime between the late 10th to early 11th century.

• Chang incorporated sufficient of variety of sizes, colors, and shapes with the flowers: there are enough different types to make the painting interesting, but not so many types that it seems chaotic and disjointed.
• The overlapping flowers and rock give the painting a slight sense of depth. I think it is particularly interesting that the holes in the large dark rock create windows for the flowers behind them.
• This painting has asymmetrical balance because the position of the rock and white flowers more towards the left side of the painting balance with the pinkish-purple flowers in the right foreground of the painting. Asymmetrical balance seems to be a common characteristic in Asian artwork.