landscape paintings
To understand what landscape paintings are we will start with the very definition of what a landscape is. We also need to have a basic understanding of how a landscape differs from land. Is the word landscape always meant to imply something that is to be pictured or something that is essentially a scene to be captured on canvas.
This line of questioning about
landscapes brings us to a more essential and deep-rooted question about why
it is that we human beings cherish the various images of nature. In fact
what is this nature that fascinates us so deeply. Does nature essentially
consist of all that isn’t an art, or artifact or simply an object? It is
important to define nature before we try and understand landscape paintings,
because landscape paintings are essentially depictions of nature.
An interesting line of thought that tries to understand nature is an
implication that land is the raw material that is converted into art by
converting the land into a landscape. This landscape then becomes art in the
form of a landscape painting.
If we trace the evolution of the
landscape paintings, we find that The Five Dynasties and Song periods also
had witnessed a gradual shift in the subject matter depicted in the
paintings of that in favor of landscapes as the subject matter of most
paintings.
Somehow in all the earlier dynasties landscapes were more often the backdrop
and the settings for depicting human dramas, which was almost always the
primary subject matter of paintings. But during the tenth and eleventh
centuries, a large number of landscape painters who had great skill and
renown started producing landscape paintings in a very large scale. Today
these paintings are considered to be some of the greatest monuments in the
history of Chinese visual culture and art.
In the Chinese ancient culture the landscape paintings were usually centered
around mountains. This was because mountains had for a long time been sacred
places in China. Mountains were considered to be the homes of immortals that
were the closest to the heavens. Another interesting viewpoint is that the
philosophical interest of the Chinese Culture in nature could have been one
of the largest contributing factors to the rising fame of landscape
painting.
lso, the Daoist theory stresses on how minor the human presence is in
comparison to the vastness of the remaining universe of cosmos. The Neo
Confucian theory also highlights the patterns and principles that are
underlying in all the phenomena, natural and social of this universe.
author S Kadiwala. copyright indianchild.com
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