Zhao Mengfu Writing the Heart Sutra in Exchange for Tea

What you see

A block of calligraphy in tight columns fills the left end. After a strip of patterned fabric, the painting begins: a pale meadow beneath a row of trees. Toward the right, a man in a white robe, seated beside another dressed in grey, is the focus of the scene, and a boy approaches them. Further back, other figures busy themselves by a red table and behind a fence.

The color is light: soft greens, browns and the white of the robes against cream paper. At this size the figures are tiny and their gestures hard to make out. Look for the bird flying across the upper left and the many red seals.