★With angles of China and the west on two world-famous masterpieces, The Marriage of the Virgin by Raphael and Along the River during the Qingming Festival by Zhang Zeduan, the book invites viewers to compare different representations of time and space and explore perspective in them.

In 2020, we celebrated the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death. Although the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has unavoidably hindered the celebration, it can’t stop the online comparison between two masterpieces, The Marriage of the Virgin by Raphael and Along the River during the Qingming Festival by Zhang Zeduan. Separated by hundreds of years and thousands of miles, they were created in the context with little contact but of similar status in their own culture.

The dialogue invites viewers to compare different ways of showing time and space: in the western painting, perspective makes it “an actual representation of a certain point and place, even if the time and space is imaginary and fictitious”; in the Chinese painting, scroll of meters long with axonometric projection allow the viewers to follow the sequence of scenes as the painting unfolds.

The book includes remarks about the topic from various angles which emphasize characteristics of Chinese art in Zhang’s painting. It not only deepens people’s understanding of perspective in two paintings, but also shows the story after Raphael’s Wedding and the investigation on his techniques during the repair in 2009.