In Classical perspective, as it was codified in the Renaissance, the third dimension is constructed geometrically, based on a line at the viewer’s eye level, and one or more fixed vanishing points with one or more of those points on that line. Perspective establishes a specific point in space to which all other points relate. Space is defined by points, straight lines, and planes. Perspectival art renders uniform space – where the subjects are framed and bounded, and fixed in their positions. In Chinese art the subjects are drawn with black outlines with tones applied as detail. Chinese calligraphy, is strictly focused on line work. If Chinese art is in essence a two dimensional graphic, how do we understand depth or space?
Chinese aesthetics is rooted in Daoism. Nature is a popular subject in Chinese painting. Nature – ziran (自然) represents elements of the natural world. Ziran also means “of itself.” The natural world is self generating, made by a matrix of elements that interact causing change. Nature is rhythmical, in constant flux passing between active and passive states. The Daoists believed that every object living or inanimate possess qualities “of itself.” True wisdom recognizes and follows the flows of natural rhythms, leaving things as they are. The Chinese makes no distinctions between nature and artifice or between large and small. Landscape painting and garden design uses similar tactics in spatial organization. The Chinese garden – a world of artifice, where the elements nevertheless follow natural processes – is a tightly organized journey, where a small space expands by suggestion, and the sense of the place is framed as an accumulation of experience. The garden is a continuous narrative, each scene is revealed along a serpentine path. Well designed gardens control pace and view. In-position viewing locates the viewer at a platform or pavilion in order to admire a scene in elevation. Curving paths are disorienting, hiding important settings and destinations from view. In-motion viewing anticipates the viewer’s promenade along narrow paths that thread between rockery and buildings. All the elements used in the garden are suggestive forms. Rock sculptures remind the visitor of majestic mountains, ponds and streams represent lakes and rivers. A rock is a smaller version of a mountain because both belong under the same cosmology. At the end of the journey, the visitor is reminded of the natural landscape through the scenery he passed through. For an artist, accurate depiction is not important, but revealing natural rhythms and the spirit of the subject are essential. Brush art captures vitality in painted form with brush technique and strategic composition.
Shi (势) is an ambiguous term meaning both position and potential. Shi represents the rules and also the effect caused by the rules. The definitions are codependent: things arranged in a specific position generate a potential. In The Propensity of Thing, Francois Jullien uses the ambiguous meaning of shi to argue that Chinese logic is never formed a priori. A sinologist and philosophy professor at the Université Paris VII Denis-Diderot, Jullien writes:
When compared with the elaboration of Western thought, the originality of the Chinese lies in their indifference to any notion of a telos, a final end for things, for they sought to interpret reality solely on the basis of itself, from the perspective of a single logic inherent in the actual processes in motion. (Jullien, 17)
No configuration of forms is perfectly static; all actions require form to take effect. Chinese artist and poet “produced a particular configuration of the dynamism inherent in reality.” (Jullien, 75) Calligraphy, painting and poetry tells stories in parallel: simultaneously describing the here and now and the events will follow.
No configuration of forms is perfectly static; all actions require form to take effect. Chinese artist and poet “produced a particular configuration of the dynamism inherent in reality.” (Jullien, 75) Calligraphy, painting and poetry tells stories in parallel: simultaneously describing the here and now and the events will follow.
Chinese paintings use silk and paper. Paper is made of bamboo pulp cut in separate sheets or made into a roll. A finished painting is mounted over lining paper and coated with a paste that waterproofs the surface. Chinese painting and calligraphy are not on permanent display but stored and periodically brought out for viewing. The scroll exists in two formats: the handscroll and the hanging scroll. Handscrolls are horizontal compositions, typically nine to fourteen inches high with variable widths. Looking at a handscroll, one begins from the right-hand side, unrolls the painting, one shoulder width section at a time, re-rolling the section before moving on to the next part. Hanging scrolls are vertical compositions that range between two to six feet high with variable widths. A hanging scroll is suspended from a cord at the top and viewed after the painting is hung. Jullien describes the logic behind landscape painting as follows:
In contrast to Western logic, which is panoramic, Chinese logic is like that of a possible journey in stages that are lined together. The field of thought is not defined and contained a priori; it just unfolds progressively, from one stage to the next, becoming more fertile along the way. Furthermore, the path along which it unfolds does not exclude other possibilities – which may run alongside temporarily or intersect with it. By the end of the journey, an experience has been lived through, a landscape has been sketched in. (Jullien, 124)
The scroll format encourages continuous narratives. Artworks are completed in stages. With long scrolls, each section is painted separately then assembled. Boundaries are avoided: motifs in one scene extend towards its neighboring sections. There are no visual breaks; scenes combine, never disrupting the pace or tempo of the overall work. Great paintings sustain multiple viewings, the scenes always revealing new surprises. The first viewing establishes the overall narrative: the characters, the motifs, the major paths and journeys. The subsequent viewings reveal finer subplots: the minor characters and alternative routes. Time is physically marked by the moment the viewer begins and finishes unrolling the scroll. The scroll format invites kinetic interaction.
The scroll format encourages continuous narratives. Artworks are completed in stages. With long scrolls, each section is painted separately then assembled. Boundaries are avoided: motifs in one scene extend towards its neighboring sections. There are no visual breaks; scenes combine, never disrupting the pace or tempo of the overall work. Great paintings sustain multiple viewings, the scenes always revealing new surprises. The first viewing establishes the overall narrative: the characters, the motifs, the major paths and journeys. The subsequent viewings reveal finer subplots: the minor characters and alternative routes. Time is physically marked by the moment the viewer begins and finishes unrolling the scroll. The scroll format invites kinetic interaction.
A Chinese landscape painting is a precise compilation of forms that allude to movement. One rarely finds a straight line in the painting. Even architecture found in paintings cannot escape the influence of curves. Straight columns support sweeping roofs that, in return, reciprocate the motion of currents and streams that are never far from the scene. Curved lines best illustrate organic forms: the lines are serpentine, rarely limited to a single arc. Chinese painters impart life into their subjects using a strategy that Jullien calls functional bipolarity. From opposition comes desired effect: the curve is the opposite of the straight edge, but the combination of contrasting qualities creates tension, and the tension is visually dynamic. For example, a cascade is represented by undulating lines, but on every line, each arc springs from a common point but in alternating directions, facing left and right. The effect describes both the motion of the water and the structure that causes the movement. The rock gives shape and direction to the flow of the water and the water animates the rock. It is this combination of angular and smooth edges, and alternating orientation that creates the sensation of movement. The straight elements are structural while the curved elements suggest life. Another way artists create visual dynamism is by combining and repeating similar motifs. Kuo Hsi, a painter in the Song Dynasty writes:
The change of appearance caused by the varying degree of distance from the object is figuratively known as ‘the change of shape with every step one takes.’…Thus a single mountain combines in itself several thousand appearances. (Kuo, 41)
Trees, rocks, bodies of water, boats, villages and people are often repeated, disperse throughout a painting. Views of the same object at various distances and levels of detail are collapsed on one picture plane. A painter may also group “pines, cedars, old acacias, and old juniper trees in clumps of three or five, in such a way as to emphasize their shi.” (Jullien, 82) Every tree possess a shi - the propensity for developing a unique form. Direct comparison reveals obvious differences in shape, height and posture. Differences create harmony, not dissonance. Ultimately, shi is a unifying force, “for in China, a painting is only really worthy of its name when it represents the totality of things.” (Jullien, 98) Shi is a term, representative of the vital energy, a natural logic that shapes form and propels change in all objects alive or inanimate. Functional bipolarity and variation are artistic devices that enable the viewer to sense vitality - a life force in the painted form. The artist stays true to the essence of his subject - a unifying quality, but never replicates any motifs exactly.
Trees, rocks, bodies of water, boats, villages and people are often repeated, disperse throughout a painting. Views of the same object at various distances and levels of detail are collapsed on one picture plane. A painter may also group “pines, cedars, old acacias, and old juniper trees in clumps of three or five, in such a way as to emphasize their shi.” (Jullien, 82) Every tree possess a shi - the propensity for developing a unique form. Direct comparison reveals obvious differences in shape, height and posture. Differences create harmony, not dissonance. Ultimately, shi is a unifying force, “for in China, a painting is only really worthy of its name when it represents the totality of things.” (Jullien, 98) Shi is a term, representative of the vital energy, a natural logic that shapes form and propels change in all objects alive or inanimate. Functional bipolarity and variation are artistic devices that enable the viewer to sense vitality - a life force in the painted form. The artist stays true to the essence of his subject - a unifying quality, but never replicates any motifs exactly.
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