Reflections 3 - The Chinese galleries
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started my explorations in the Chinese galleries. But I'm struck by a number of things.
First is the continuity of some of the traditions and the modes of representation, a continuity that almost rivals that of Egyptian art. The dragon motif seems present from the Shang dynasty forward, for example. Similarly, later landscape painters respected and built on the work of earlier artists and incorporated long-standing elements of landscapes (rivers, mountains, trees) into their compositions. I am not enough of a connoisseur, unfortunately, to recognize easily the differences as well as the similarities among the landscape scrolls unless these differences are very obvious.
Second, and related, is the importance of the landscape itself. Egyptian artists sometimes showed animals and plants, but I recall few expansive landscape scenes, and the same is true of Roman artists, except for the murals that adorned villas. But nature plays a critical role in Chinese painting, as a source of beauty and wonder, and ro efuge from the travails of the world.
Third, while I have tended to think about China as isolated from artistic developments in the rest of the world, Chinese ceramics clearly influenced those of Japan, Turkey, and various European countries. And the Chinese were savvy in figuring out how to market the objects they produced to outsiders.
Fourth, Chinese artists take up some of the same themes found in other traditions: the nature of the afterlife, the importance of having children. Perhaps these are universals found in almost all art - something I will want to watch out for.
Fifth is the importance of the role played by scholars, men of learning responsible for administrative functions of the state. (How different from the degraded situation in the United States today!) Of course, many scholars actually were painters, so perhaps they were exalting their own position. But still....
Finally, looking at art from a very different tradition has helped me define my own taste. I am attracted to contemporary objects that have clean, simple lines, and the same is true of many of the works to which I have been attracted in these galleries.
First is the continuity of some of the traditions and the modes of representation, a continuity that almost rivals that of Egyptian art. The dragon motif seems present from the Shang dynasty forward, for example. Similarly, later landscape painters respected and built on the work of earlier artists and incorporated long-standing elements of landscapes (rivers, mountains, trees) into their compositions. I am not enough of a connoisseur, unfortunately, to recognize easily the differences as well as the similarities among the landscape scrolls unless these differences are very obvious.
Second, and related, is the importance of the landscape itself. Egyptian artists sometimes showed animals and plants, but I recall few expansive landscape scenes, and the same is true of Roman artists, except for the murals that adorned villas. But nature plays a critical role in Chinese painting, as a source of beauty and wonder, and ro efuge from the travails of the world.
Third, while I have tended to think about China as isolated from artistic developments in the rest of the world, Chinese ceramics clearly influenced those of Japan, Turkey, and various European countries. And the Chinese were savvy in figuring out how to market the objects they produced to outsiders.
Fourth, Chinese artists take up some of the same themes found in other traditions: the nature of the afterlife, the importance of having children. Perhaps these are universals found in almost all art - something I will want to watch out for.
Fifth is the importance of the role played by scholars, men of learning responsible for administrative functions of the state. (How different from the degraded situation in the United States today!) Of course, many scholars actually were painters, so perhaps they were exalting their own position. But still....
Finally, looking at art from a very different tradition has helped me define my own taste. I am attracted to contemporary objects that have clean, simple lines, and the same is true of many of the works to which I have been attracted in these galleries.
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