Section 2. At a loss for words on Eastern Art
How can I dare to write about such an inefable subject? I will start with what we can see in a painting give an outline of the motifs in Eastern art, then I will scale up to what the artist does and finally I will move gradually into an aesthetics thought: what happens inside the beholder?
Somewhere I read a European romantic artist who said these words: “in the trees, plants and flowers we can find the secret writing with icons” which implies the metaphoric significance of images. Likewise a vocabulary of symbolic motifs gradually developed in the East of Asia, including animals and plants in their seasonal settings. They have continued to be used by artists and craftsmen to the present day working in traditional styles. Besides, the human being is seen as an integral part of nature, as important as the sky, mountains, water, trees or birds.
On the principles I understood that the true artist at the moment of painting must feel the very nature of the subject matter of his piece of art, which, by the magic of his craftmanship, he transfers into his work to remain forever, affecting all who see it with the same sensations he experienced when executing it.
2.1. What we can see.
Yugiri seeks the favour of Tamakazura with
a bunch of fujibakama purple blooms
(Genji monogatari )
Good examples of symbolic motifs could be found in the popular subjects known as the “ten friends”, the Seven plants of autumn or the one I mentioned in the first section: “Flowers and Grasses of the Four Seasons” where the bamboo depicted resiliency and strength, the orchid morality and integrity, the Chrysanthemum moral virtue and the plum blossom (apricot in Korea) excellence. Other groupings, such as the 'Three Gentlemen of Winter' (pine, bamboo and plum), were symbols of longevity in Japan.
Chinese poetry calligraphy and painting continued with the centuries-old Taoist and Buddhist philosophies and techniques. Well known artists were those retired to the lake of the west in the XI century:
Su-Dongpo, l’ami de l’orchidée, et Zhao Maoshu l’ami du lotus; Lin Hejing, l’ami de la flor du prunier, et Tao Yuanming l’ami du chrysanthème. Voilà ce qu’on appelle la salle des Quatre Compagnons
Flower-and-bird painting was separated from decorative art to form an independent genre around the 9th century. A great many artists painted in this genre during the Song dynasty and their subject matter included a rich variety of flowers, fruits, insects and fish. Many of the scholar painters working with ink and brush used a great economy of line. They produced paintings of natural things to reflect their own ideals and character.
With flower-and-bird paintings, sometimes a single flower hangs as if suspended in space, or the flowers and plants of different seasons appear together. In other occasions their depictions of gorgeous blossoms and a pair of beautiful birds symbolised the love between the spouses and the desire for a large off-spring. A bird and flower could be systematically paired to produce an appropriate seasonal feeling, as with bush warbler and plum blossom, also mentioned frequently in haiku verse to signify early spring.
Chinese painters attach great importance to reality, space and time and yet manage to disregard them at the same time ignoring perspective and shading. The laws of these things must come second to the requirements of artistic creation and should not become shackles that bind artistic expression.
To mention the case of Japan, already in the eighth-century Manyôshû poetry anthology, references to the seasons have strong emotional connotations. During the Heian period (AD 794-1180), courtly taste in painting favoured seasonal themes as one of the most important elements distinguishing Japanese Yamato-e painting from Chinese kara-e.
2.2. What artists do.
La peinture qui s’attache à la resemblance formelle nous paraît naïve comme un dessin d’enfant
To judge a painting by form alone is but a child’s way
(Su Dongpo)
The underlying Eastern principle –that I studied in my first pac- was ‘harmony’. This was explained by one of the Ming painters, Wang Fu(1362-1416), as “likeness through unlikeness” and Qi Baishi(1863-1957) as “subtlety of a good painting lies in its being alike and yet unlike the subject”.
The Confucian way of expression gave way to a richly decorative style. The ink-and wash style, however, relied on vivid brushwork and varying degrees of intensity of ink to express the artist's conception of nature, and his own emotions and individuality in a Taoist artistic framework.
Learning 'the Way of the Brush' can give any artist an extra dimension, vitality and spontaneity to their works of art. In trying to understand the philosophy and practice of observing and absorbing the Ch'i in nature will create a calmer more thoughtful, meditative state in which to draw and paint. There is an established order of the brush strokes first for the leaves, then the stalk, and finally the flower.
This is not an imaginary principle but a strictly enforced law of Japanese painting. When he is painting, say ‘a tree’, he is urged to feel the strength which shoots through the branches and sustains the limbs. Or if a flower, to try to feel the grace with which it expands or bows its blossoms.
Since the creative requirements of Chinese painting do not demand strict adherence to reality or to a particular angle of view or source of light, the painter has complete freedom in terms of artistic conception, structural composition and method of expression. To give prominence to the main subject, it is quite permissible to omit the background entirely and simply leave it blank. At the same time, since the sizes and shapes of the spaces in the painting are different, the very absence of content can itself create rhythm and variety.
As Clarence Shute states:
It is because of this oneness of nature and man--not only in the sense that man is in nature or that man is generated and supported by nature, but that there are identities of characteristics-that the spectacle of nature arouses the powerful emotion the artist experiences in its presence. And unless this feeling for nature pervades his entire being, there will not be the control of his skill which is requisite for the painting of a picture which has resonance or life movement
Aesthetics standards change with the times. The poetic flavour took hold with the Song Dinasty. Painters were required to express a one-line poem and the only resources were figures and ink-play. The former was favoured by the Northern Academy heavily leant towards formal ressemblance, the latter by the free spirits of the literati who stroke for personal moods. With the Yuan the tension broke in a clear direction. Following Li Zehou: “the basic principle of ‘rhythmic vitalism’ that had always been the advocated in Chinese painting no longer applied to objects but only and entrirely to the subjective”
2.3. Inside the beholder.
Whatever side you behold nature, the infinite springs from her (Goethe)
The Chinese attitude toward life lies in the belief in the secret of life, namely the Ch'i, the life force or the ever-evolving circle of life. The Taoist philosophy 'The Way', or the basic Chinese belief in an order and harmony in nature has also a very important influence in Chinese calligraphy and painting. The human being is seen as an integral part of nature, as important as the sky, mountains, water, trees, birds, animals and insects.
There are many different styles in Chinese painting including the outline method, and 'boneless' method (Mo Ku style, no outline). Landscape, figures, birds, and flowers and animals are all painted using both these methods. The Chinese artist's way is to observe, absorb and study nature and then to paint from the mind. Sometimes the variety and balance created in this way is further enriched by the addition of inscriptions in the empty space.
Somehow the painting often moves the audience more profoundly than its original subject due to the creativity of the artist. It is explained first of all in terms of the unity of all things which can be perceived from a truly great man possessing “the Great Character”.
Again and again the Chinese philosophers, Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist, have carried this point of view to the extreme--to know any-thing one must become that thing. Its application to art is taken very seriously. Even when nature is being represented the artist is concerned not to reproduce its aesthetic surface, but to lay bare its hidden spirit.
Literature and resources to pac 2.
Linhartova, V. Sur un fond blanc Gallimard, Paris, 1996
Zehou, Li The path of Beauty. A study of Chinese Aesthetics, Oxford in Asia Paperbacks, 1995
References to section 1. Mainly from these resources:
Mitford, Bruce Signos y símbolos (Blume, 1997) pages 44-53
Seunghye Sun “The symbols of Seasonal changes from winter to spring in East Asian paintings” (pages 167-75) in Symbols of time in the history of Art edited by Heck, C. and Lippincott k. (Brepols, 2002)
website 1: http://www.japan-zone.com/culture/season.shtml
website 2: http://www.yoursourceinjapan.com/motifs.htm
website 3: http://www.china-interface.co.uk/introzh.htm#Subject
website 4: http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/japan/Flowers/Japanese_Flowers_Bonsai.html
Footnotes to section1:
<1> Seunghye Sun page 167
<2> From A Gift of Japanese Flowers by A. Koehn found at website 4.
<3> Cultural note: Cherry-blossom viewing parties (Hanami) were popular among the Japanese nobility in ancient times, and by the early 17th century the custom has spread to the common people. Picnicking and drinking sake with family, friends and co-workers beneath flowering cherry trees remains a popular rite of springtime in contemporary Japan (found at website 3).
<4> Linhartova states: “au cours de l’époque Heian est née une nouvelle conception de l’image. (...) La peinture n’est plus une révélation du monde divin, (...) la légèreté serà dorénavant sa principal qualité” page 128.
<5> Summa Artis Encyclopaedia vol. XXI (Japón), pages 213-15
<6> It shares its sacred value with the Hindu, that is Arian, background and can be traced backwasrds as the antique Egypt.
Footnotes to section 2.
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