Landscape Paintings: From East to West Through the Ages - Essay Sample

Introduction

Landscape paintings are depictions of natural scenery that capture valleys, mountains, water bodies, forests, fields, among other natural features. In some instances, the paintings may also capture human-made structures. This genre of art can be traced from as far as the 4th century in the Eastern world. However, while paintings in Western tradition incorporated elements of the natural world, landscape painting as a genre emerged in the 16th century. Owing to the different cultures and beliefs, landscape paintings from the two worlds differed in several ways. For instance, while Eastern landscape paintings incorporated the painter's feelings and emotions instead of just depicting the natural features, the western painters sought to express natural scenes as realistically as possible. Also, while the use of lines and stroke are the primary methods of expression in Eastern landscape paintings, western painters relied more on color and the relationship between shadow and light to depict realistic elements of nature. The different styles also led to differences in perspective, with Eastern painters using a flattened perspective. In contrast, their western counterparts used various perspectives to create views that are as real as possible. As such, landscape paintings from the two worlds differ in aesthetic basics, composition, and perspective. This paper seeks to discuss the differences between the Landscape with the Flight into Egypt and Clearing after Rains over Streams and Mountains.

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Landscape With the Flight Into Egypt

Aelbert Cuyp created this painting in 1650. Though he had not been to Italy like his contemporaries, he emulated the Dutch Italianate painters (The MET, 2020). The oil on wood painting depicts the route taken by the Holy Family to Egypt. The path snakes from Rhineland rocks to a coast near Genoa. As seen in his other works, the painter uses contrast, the tonality of colors, as well as perspective and depth to collapse the image and deeply engage the viewer's imagination. The landmass is contrasted against the clear sea that meets the cloudless skies on the horizon. Joseph is leading the donkey that is carrying Mary and the child. There are also three other people in the painting and three cattle grazing. The hill/boulder towers above cushioning them from whatever lies on the other side. As stated in the introduction, Western painters were keen to make their landscape paintings as real as possible. This element is seen in the painting.

Clearing After Rain Over Streams and Mountains

Wang Hui created this ink on paper painting in 1662 (The MET, 2020). It belongs to the Qing dynasty. Various elements are used to combine the conical mountains and clusters of boulders to create the cloudy mountains. The painter also flattens forms to depict a serene landscape covered in mist and clouds. Luminous ink tones control the lyrical composition of the painting. It was intimated in the introduction, that instead of representing landscapes as they appear in nature, Eastern painters sought to express their emotions in the paintings. As seen in the painting, there is no realistic representation, and it also has abundant empty spaces that are not present in the Western painting above. The empty spaces represent absence as advanced in Taoist principles. To represent presence, mountain landscapes emerge from the emptiness of the clouds and mist.

Comparison

As mentioned earlier, both the Western and Eastern cultures have depicted landscapes in their paintings for centuries. The landscape was, to a large extent, used to interpret their religious and cultural attitudes. However, there exist several differences in the way the two cultures depict landscapes in their paintings. On aesthetics, the Eastern painters incorporate their emotions and feelings into the painting and also include elements of Taoism Alepko, 2016). Resultantly, they used broad strokes and left many white spaces, as seen in the Clearing after Rain over Streams and Mountains. The white spaces were intentionally left to inspire the viewers to imagine (Yang, et al., 2019).

On the contrary, as seen in the Landscape with the Flight into Egypt, western paintings were primarily influenced by Christianity. In the painting, Christ is depicted fleeing to Egypt with his parents. Also, the Western cultures held that God created the world, and hence the painters sought to portray the beauty of creation in their paintings. Resultantly, their depiction of landscapes is as realistic as possible, a feature not seen in landscape paintings from the Eastern cultures. As seen in the Landscape with the Flight into Egypt, the western painters also shortened the distance between the painting and the viewer to draw them into the landscape.

As seen in the above painting, stroke, and line are the main methods of expression in the Eastern landscape paintings. The methods are also used to classify natural elements as either host or guest. The host is placed in the action line, while the guests are arranged to render or contrast the host. In the Chinese painting above, the mountain is the host while the trees are the guests. It should be noted that mountains were sacred in Chinese culture. On the other hand, the creation of realistic scenes is the principle of expression in Western cultures. Color, light, shadow, and appearance are used to create a feeling of being surrounded by the atmosphere and environment. As seen in the Landscape with the Flight into Egypt, random wildness of nature is depicted using skies, horizons, and patterned backgrounds. Undefined and loose brush strokes are used to create amorphous shapes in the background (Bao, et al., 2016). There is heavier use of color in western culture as opposed to the Chinese culture, where paintings are majorly black and white.

Finally, as seen in the paintings, the flattened perspective is used in eastern culture. Resultantly, there are no points or lines to guide the viewer, hence allowing them to imagine. On the contrary, various perspectives are used by western painters in their quest to create realistic landscapes. The perspectives move the viewer through various emotions in the painting.

Conclusion

As shown in the paper, though created in the same period, the two paintings have several differences. For instance, the use of aesthetics, perspectives, and various techniques was influenced by the different motives of the painters in the two cultures. While western painters sought to recreate the landscapes as realistically as possible, eastern painters were after expressing themselves in the paintings. However, from both paintings, it is clear that the 17th-century society respected nature more than modern society does.

Works Cited

Alepko, A. A. (2016). Taoism Traditions in the Artistic Culture of China. Retrieved from http://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/20327

Bao, Y., Yang, T., Lin, X., Fang, Y., Wang, Y., Poppel, E., & Lei, Q. (2016). Aesthetic preferences for eastern and western traditional visual art: identity matters. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 1596. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01596

The MET. (2020). Clearing after Rain over Streams and Mountains. Retrieved from The MET: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/49150

The MET. (2020). Landscape with the Flight into Egypt. Retrieved from The MET: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436061

Yang, T., Silveira, S., Paolini, M., Poppel, E., Sander, T., & Bao, Y. (2019). Aesthetic experiences across cultures: neural correlates when viewing traditional Eastern or Western landscape paintings. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 798. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00798/abstract