The main differences between Chinese and western art
Aesthetics is closely related to philosophy, and China's aesthetics is deeply influenced by Confucianism and Taoism. It can be said that Confucianism and Taoism are the aesthetic foundation on which China's art depends. Influenced by Christianity, the west believes that sacred values exist outside people and the world and need to be seen and heard. According to the understanding of Christianity, the artist's accurate and perfect expression of external beauty is to complete his closeness to God and make a contribution to God. These aesthetic thoughts are embodied in different western cultural fields and have different aesthetic values. Chinese and western aesthetics are two different peaks in the history of world art, and there is no fundamental difference between them. It is precisely because of the differences in ideas that we feel the shock and beauty brought by different styles of art. Only through the differences in painting, architecture and gardens between Chinese and Western art can we appreciate the charm of Chinese and Western art.
Keywords: artistic differences, painting, architectural gardens
main body
In my opinion, the difference between Chinese and western art lies in the difference of philosophical concepts. The development of art needs the guidance of philosophy. Westerners consider more rational factors, while artists in China consider more human thoughts. You can see what western art works pursue. Take the most famous and well-known Renaissance as an example. Impressionist painters emphasize the expression of light. It is the painter's subjective and objective scientific analysis of light. In the later period, Monet even gradually gave up his grasp of form and pursued the expression of light crazily. For example, China's paintings in his own garden were rarely analyzed and dissected by objective things in Chinese painting. Chinese painting emphasizes artistic conception, which is already in the consciousness of pure painters. It was not until Huang, a master of Chinese painting, gradually began to learn from some western concepts and integrate some aspects into his own paintings. However, it's not that China's art lags behind the western ideas, but the fundamental philosophical differences. Have produced different philosophical guidance.
Chinese and western aesthetics are two different peaks in the history of world art. There is no fundamental difference between the two, but the aesthetic difference is caused by different concepts, which also gives us a variety of choices. I chose three more aspects. On the differences between Chinese and western art from three aspects: painting, architecture and gardens.
Differences in painting
The most important difference between Chinese and western art lies in perspective, which is the most fundamental. China's paintings pay attention to conception, thinking in images and the unity of subjective and objective artistic images. Modeling is not limited to surface similarity, but emphasizes
Between similarity and dissimilarity "and" dissimilarity ",combining focus (one point) perspective and scattered point (multi-point) perspective in perspective; Western paintings, on the other hand, focus on perspective, objectively and scientifically reflect the appearance of objects, which is characterized by truth and objectivity.
The influence of painting style on the whole society is enormous, and the cultural heritage formed by the whole society is also fed back to painting. For example, from the perspective of architecture, culture, weather, building materials and construction technology all have a great influence on it, which is also baroque style, and there are some subtle changes in every place.
During the Renaissance, western humanism experienced the ups and downs of ideas and formed many artistic styles, not because of the number of styles, but because this ethos promoted people's thoughts and kept innovating. On the other hand, in ancient China, due to the ideological rule of the ruling class in feudal society, people were forced to create the brilliance of Chinese painting within a certain framework, not for the king, but for the green mountains and green waters, which also limited the development of China's painting in the new era. Of course, the meticulous painting developed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, in a sense, also emphasizes the focus perspective of western painting (there are fewer meticulous buildings).
Different painting tools also create differences between Chinese and western painting. Brush, paper and painting pigments are all unique, which embodies the wisdom of ancient people in China. Of course, the scientific and technological level of the whole western society was also very high at that time.
Generally speaking, China's paintings pay attention to artistic conception, and the composition of the picture can be: mountains in the north, water in the south, mountains and rivers in the chest, flowers and birds of figures, not to mention the increase or decrease. The rigorous modeling and dedicated perspective of western painting determine its limitations in composition, but it also reflects the meticulous carving between the square and square of western painting. In today's sense, Chinese paintings are carefully tasted, and the details of western paintings are more attractive.
Other differences in painting:
1, different materials and tools
Western classical painting uses oil painting pigments and oil pens, with wooden canvas as the carrier.
Traditional painting in China uses ink, plant color, mineral color and brush, and takes Xuan paper and silk as carriers.
2, the theme is different.
Western classical painting emphasizes people most, and figure painting is very prosperous.
Traditional painting in China emphasizes the unity of man and nature, figure painting has become a supporting role since the Tang Dynasty, and landscape painting is very prosperous.
3. Different observation methods
Since the Renaissance, western classical painting has been closely combined with science, emphasizing the relationship between perspective and proportion, and the painter's observation method adopts focus perspective.
China's traditional painting adopts scattered perspective, while there are no particularly perfect and detailed works of art theory in the west, only some painting theories are circulated, such as "three distances" and "six essentials".
Architecture difference
1. The differences in building materials reflect the differences in material culture and philosophy between China and the West.
From the perspective of building materials, before the emergence of modern architecture, all mature building systems in the world, including Indian buildings belonging to oriental architecture, were basically built with masonry as the main building material, belonging to the masonry structure system. For example, the pyramids in Egypt, the temples in ancient Greece, the Colosseum and aqueduct in ancient Rome, and the churches in medieval Europe were all built of stones, which are historical witnesses left in this "Stone History Book". Only China's classical architecture (including neighboring Japanese and Korean areas) is a house with wood as the main frame, which belongs to the wood structure system, so it is known as "the history book of wood". The choice of materials in Chinese and western architecture is not only due to different natural factors, but also the result of different cultures and ideas, which is a universal reflection of different ideas in architecture. The primitive economy dominated by hunting in the west has created a primitive mentality of valuing things over people. From westerners' affirmation of stones, we can see the rational spirit of seeking wisdom and truth, emphasizing that in the relationship between man and nature, man is the master of the world, and his strength and wisdom can overcome everything. China's economic model based on primitive agriculture created an activity model that emphasized selection, collection and storage in primitive civilization. China's traditional philosophy, which developed from this, preached the world outlook of "harmony between man and nature". "The Unity of Heaven and Man" reveals the relationship between man and nature. Nature and man are closely linked as a whole, and man is a link in nature. China people choose wood as the basic building material, which is the result of attaching importance to its affinity with life and its character and life.
2. The difference of architectural space layout reflects the difference of institutional culture and personality characteristics between China and the West.
Judging from the spatial layout of buildings, the buildings in our country are the spatial pattern of closed groups, which are scattered on the ground plane. No matter what kind of buildings in China, from residential houses to palaces, they are almost a pattern, similar to the "quadrangle" model. The architectural beauty of China is a kind of "collective" beauty. For example; Beijing Palace in Ming and Qing Dynasties, Ming Tombs and Confucius Temple in Qufu are all huge buildings with many courtyards. All kinds of buildings are arranged in a regular way, which embodies the introverted characteristics of China's ancient social structure, patriarchal ideology and ethical code system. Contrary to China, western architecture is an open and single spatial pattern, which develops towards high altitude. Compared with the Louvre in Paris, the Forbidden City in Beijing, newly built and expanded in similar years, is a magnificent building complex composed of thousands of single houses, forming a series of courtyards around the axis, with an extremely huge plane; The latter uses the upward expansion and vertical superposition of "volume" to form a towering and magnificent whole from a huge and changeable body. Moreover, from the polis of ancient Greece and Rome, colonnades, doors and windows were widely used to increase information exchange and transparency, and buildings were surrounded by external space to highlight the physical image of buildings. This is related to the frequent exchanges between westerners through the sea and the implementation of slave democracy in society. The extroversion and scientific and democratic spirit of ancient Greece not only influenced ancient Rome, but also influenced the whole western world. At the same time, if the buildings in China occupy the ground, then the buildings in the west occupy the space. For example, the Colosseum in Risim, Rome is 48 meters high and the Pantheon is 43.5 meters high. In the medieval Hagia Sophia, the dome of its central hall was 60 meters above the ground. St Peter's Cathedral is the most brilliant work in Renaissance architecture, with a height of137m. This building in Zhuang certainly reflects the westerners' enthusiasm for worshipping the gods, and more importantly, it gives people a spiritual force to strive for progress with advanced scientific and technological achievements.
3. In building modeling,
The roofs of classical buildings in China generally have obvious curves, with steep upper slopes and gentle lower slopes, which are not only convenient for rainwater drainage, but also conducive to sunshine and ventilation. In the buildings of Xieding Mountain and Ding Dian, the eaves are deliberately tilted slightly to both sides, especially the corners are obviously tilted, forming the artistic conception of spreading wings and flying. Compared with the Parthenon, a typical example of western classical architecture, its eave center is slightly convex, which is just the opposite of the eave curve of China classical architecture. This convex curve in the west has produced a straight and flat artistic effect.
The columns of western classical architecture have obvious divide and rule, and the columns of Greek classical architecture also have bold side feet and corner columns; Compared with the classical architecture in China, especially the orthodox architecture in the Tang and Song Dynasties, it is also very common for columns to roll and kill the side feet, which reflects the same aesthetic technique, but the proportion of columns is different due to different materials.
In addition, a new example analyzes the differences between eastern and western architecture.
1, western architecture
Western architecture always emphasizes the eternity and sublimity of architectural art with huge volume and transcendental scale. They have strict geometric figures, and often use domes and minarets with outward feeling to render the vertical strength of houses, forming an appearance feature that stands proudly and opposes nature. Pyramids and temples, the representatives of ancient Egyptian architectural culture, have highlighted this feature. The pyramids are the tombs of Egyptian legalists or nobles. The ancient Egyptians believed in the idea of immortality of the soul, and believed that eternal life could be achieved in the kingdom of heaven by permanently preserving the body after death. Therefore, Egyptian pharaohs had to build pyramids representing eternal beliefs for themselves while they were alive. The pyramids are definitely different from the ancient tombs in China. It does not have the feminine beauty of being "buried underground", nor does it create the rich and gorgeous underground paradise in the underground palace. Instead, it shows an eternal theme in the most concise and powerful geometric form, which will last forever in the world. From the perspective of artistic philosophy, the Geelong Pyramid, located in the suburb of Cairo on the west bank of the Nile, with its huge, simple, concise and stable shape, shows a supernatural and pure masculine beauty in the vast, primitive and simple desert, with a strong memorial-sacred, eternal, solemn and lofty.
The same is true of ancient Egyptian temples, such as the temple of Amon in Karnak Temple. The building is huge, heavy, majestic and mysterious, which completely shows a kind of masculine and lofty beauty. The most famous temple in Amon is the main hall, also known as the "multi-pillar temple", which covers an area of 5,000 square meters and is densely arranged with 16 rows and 134 tall and thick stone pillars. Their bottom diameter is larger than the clear distance between the columns. This kind of treatment is obviously to pursue the artistic effect of repression and super-sensibility. When talking about western religious architecture, Marx once said: "The huge image is shocking and surprising ... These behemoths, like naturally generated volumes, affect people's spirit materially, and the spirit feels depressed under the weight of material. This feeling of depression is the starting point of worship." It is this pure material pressure that is exaggerated by the architecture of the temple of Amon, aiming at causing people's consternation and shocking impression. Here, the beautiful and implicit female beauty is completely rejected.
2. China architecture
China's architectural system is an independent architectural art characterized by wood structure, which has made brilliant achievements in urban planning, architectural groups, single buildings, artistic treatment of materials and structures. Various roof shapes, cornices, colorful paintings, Zhu Zhu Jinding, indoor and outdoor decorative doors, and garden scenery in traditional architecture fully reflect the skill and appeal of China's architectural art, and mortises and tenons existed in Hemudu culture 7000 years ago. Banpo village is divided into an anteroom and a back room. During the Shang Dynasty, there were tall palaces. Bricks and tiles were used in the Western Zhou Dynasty, with a quadrangle layout. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, architectural drawings were handed down from generation to generation. The indoor and outdoor beams, columns and buckets of Jingyi Taixu Palace are decorated, and murals are painted on the walls. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, wooden structures became more and more mature, with magnificent buildings, rich decorations and beautiful stretches, and huge architectural groups such as Epang Palace and Weiyang Palace appeared. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhist temples and pagodas developed rapidly with various forms, and kissing ornaments appeared on the roof. Glazed tiles used in the Sui and Tang Dynasties were even more magnificent. The halls of Nanchan Temple and Beigao Temple built at that time still exist, attracting worldwide attention. During the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, urban architecture flourished and commerce flourished. Luxury restaurants and shops have their own beautiful flying pavilion bars. Palace gardens and private gardens in Ming and Qing dynasties have been preserved so far, and the buildings are more magnificent, complicated and dignified than those in Song Dynasty. Chinese modern architectural art has been developing and innovating in the practice of inheriting excellent traditions and absorbing the advantages of today's world architectural art.
Differences in gardens
Throughout the development history of China gardens and western gardens, we can easily find that there are obvious differences between them. The former emphasizes: nature and wild interest; The latter emphasizes unity, pays attention to geometry and so on, and the two styles are very different. The landscape gardens in China show natural beauty, and the layout is characterized by nature, change and twists and turns. It requires that the scenery originates from nature and is higher than nature, so that the beauty of man-made and nature can be integrated into one, so as to achieve "although some people do it, it is natural", while western gardens reflect the achievements of human conquest and transformation of nature to a greater extent. In their gardens, you will find that the artificially carved nature exudes another kind of beauty, which is idealized by human beings. This kind of beauty is straightforward and revealing.
1, the historical origin of the differences between Chinese and western gardens
To understand China gardens and western gardens, let's first compare the urban layout of the East and the West: in Europe, cities are tortuous, while gardens are square and uniform; In China, the city is square and uniform. On the contrary, the gardens are tortuous and even secluded. Why the eastern and western urban layout and gardens are just the opposite, we can trace back to the development history of their urban history:
Geometric gardens in Europe were formed in the late feudal period. At that time, the emerging bourgeoisie, together with the king, was trying to get rid of hundreds of years of feudal separatism and chaos and establish a unified, centralized and strict monarchy. Most cities in Europe developed from commerce, handicrafts and land and water transportation in the Middle Ages. The twists and turns of medieval cities were the product of feudal division and chaos.
The natural gardens in China were formed under the autocratic rule of centralized monarchy. Political struggle and rigid ideology serving it suppressed all vitality. There are still spiritual social intellectuals who want to find a breathable hole in this rigid society, so they yearn for nature and life in nature. In most years, the development of China, a historical city, is the administrative center of the bureaucratic system, and the founders of the city are the products of those dictatorial regimes in history, which is particularly obvious in cities with emperors' capitals. For example, the urban layout of Beijing: the whole city is a typical chessboard layout, but the natural interest of small bridges and flowing water is reflected everywhere in the royal gardens Yuanmingyuan and Summer Palace. From the above comparison, we can draw the following conclusions: Geometric Western Gardens and Natural China Gardens, when they were formed, both reflected the wishes of people who had the greatest influence on ideology and culture at that time: what they wanted to get rid of and what they yearned for. The city at that time reflected what they wanted to get rid of, and the garden at that time reflected what they wanted to pursue, so the garden was in contrast with the city and style.
2. The specific differences between the two.
In Europe, architecture dominates gardens. To some extent, this means that order and discipline dominate everything. Architecture not only dominates the layout, but also forces gardens to obey the principles of architecture and make them "architectural". Not only the garden, but also the forest and wood have been built. Roads, pools and small buildings bring geometric rules into the garden. In the garden, people will not appreciate the natural beauty of trees and flowers. They are just materials with various colors and surfaces, which are used to lay flat patterns or trim them into green aggregates such as cones, rectangles and spheres. The beauty of the garden is the architectural beauty of this pattern and geometry. Therefore, using colored sand and stone as the bottom of the embroidery altar is similar to flowers and plants. This kind of garden can only give him a kind of vitality and vitality by artificial fountains.
In China, building rules do not dominate the layout of gardens, but in gardens, it is the composition rules that dominate buildings, forcing buildings to be "landscaped", falling with the height, breaking the shape and opening to nature. Nature itself also permeates buildings with lake stones, bamboo forests and running water. People appreciate the beauty of trees and flowers, not only their shapes, but also their "life" and "personality". Pines and cypresses that never wither in the cold, lotus flowers stained with soil, humble bamboo, and tall and faithful stones all have emotional connections with people. Even like Jin, "I feel birds, animals, birds and fish, I will come and kiss." In this way, people will blend in with nature, naturally, and temporarily forget the troubles in the world.
Therefore, China's gardening art is lyrical. People talk about retiring from the natural landscape, and even the emperor compares himself to a world-beater woodcutter and fisherman. Meditation, playing the piano, reciting poems, feelings are very sensitive and delicate. Bamboo shadow, wind and rain, light and fluorescence, tea fragrance and medicine fragrance can all arouse my imagination and reverie. A stone and a pool of water can not only become rivers and lakes, but also represent an ideal of life and a cultural essence. Therefore, from the naming of the garden to the joint amount of the building has become an elegant thing. Introducing literature into gardening art will expand the spiritual capacity of gardens. Most of this literature depicts the beauty of natural scenery without human fireworks, and expresses the feelings of contempt for the reins and locks of famous festivals. How many romantic stories have been staged in the garden? The protagonist in The West Chamber didn't discover his youth until the garden.
The gardening art of western-style gardens is rational and WTO-oriented, and the balance, proportion and rhythm should be weighed on the platform built. He exemplified the monarchy, where the monarch still plays a supreme role. People make friends, sing and dance, hold big festivals and even set off fireworks. Even the gardening elements are vivid: a large number of fountains, water tanks and other things containing many mechanical elements. Many sculptures have brought ancient myths into the garden, and the theme is nothing more than sensory enjoyment. There has never been such an elegant thing as a garden name and a link title. Therefore, Western-style gardens are not only unobstructed in layout, but also shallow in artistic conception, and they can't experience many profound and eternal life interests.
3. Aesthetic differences between eastern and western gardens.
We can make an image metaphor for the aesthetic difference between the two: If the gardens in China are like a cup of tea with overflowing fragrance, we need to savor it carefully and then experience it with our heart. Then western gardens are like a pot of coffee with strong aroma, which gives you direct enjoyment.
The highest realm of China's garden art is "harmony between man and nature", which pays attention to nature and does not reveal the trace of artificial axe. In ancient China, the garden was always regarded as a poem or a painting, not a simple civil engineering. It skillfully integrates the art of poetry and painting with the garden. Poetry, painting and garden works not only praise the formal beauty of nature itself, but also pay more attention to the inherent beauty and "individuality" of nature. It is believed that the longevity of pine and cypress, the sincerity of lotus, the modesty of bamboo, the firmness of cliff and the height of orchid are all related to human emotions. Therefore, bamboo shadow, wind and rain, sunshine and moonlight, tea fragrance and floral fragrance can arouse people's rich associations and form the unique style of China classical garden art.
Western gardens reflect the achievements of human conquest and transformation of nature to a greater extent. In their garden, you will find traces of artificial carving everywhere, and assembly graphics are scattered everywhere. Here, the garden is not the natural beauty of the garden itself, but a part of the building.
From the comparison between the two, it is not difficult to find that westerners pay more attention to the full play of individuality and the perfect combination of self-concept, but they want to stick to details, make public and be very atmospheric, but their gardens sometimes give people a feeling of being extremely out of harmony with the environment, and there is a contradictory experience in them, which can give people a sense of excitement; And our oriental gardens embody "harmony" everywhere, paying attention to the harmony between people and scenery, and the harmony between scenery and scenery. However, the word "personality" is difficult to express, and many bold innovations are difficult to achieve, because it will destroy this "harmony." Because of harmony, oriental gardens are a little petty, and because of harmony, they bring you a quiet and serene state of mind, so the gardens in China are a good place to cultivate your mind, just like a paradise.
Just like eating, radish and vegetables, garden construction may wish to have both Chinese and western, and the combination of Chinese and western is also a good choice. People have different personalities, different moods and different styles of gardens at different times.
Concluding remarks
Due to the self-contained system of China's traditional fine arts and the specific aesthetic consciousness of the Chinese nation, there are some differences between China's fine arts theory and western fine arts theory, which are produced and developed under different historical conditions. Mainly in the following aspects:
① From the theoretical form, China's traditional art theories are mostly sensitive empirical comments, which are combined with the evaluation of specific works and then involve the author's personality; Western art theory is theoretical, focusing on abstract analysis and interpretation of the form of works.
(2) Philosophically, China's traditional art theory advocates harmony and righteousness, and its categories are mostly dialectical relations of interaction, mutual restriction and unity of opposites, such as form and spirit, emotion and reason, emptiness and reality, rigidity and softness, righteousness and strangeness. Western art theory focuses on finding the basis of formal beauty of plastic arts from a scientific point of view, so its traditional theory has always been based on representative theory, and has produced perspectives, artistic anatomy, chromatics and other disciplines. Western modern art theory tends to be extreme and absolute because it emphasizes the freedom of personality and will.
③ From the perspective of sociology, China's art theory pays attention to the harmonious relationship between art and nature, society and the social function of art; Western art theory emphasizes the free observation of the formal beauty of works, and emphasizes the non-interest and non-utility of art. Of course, this comparison is only relative on the whole. With the strengthening of artistic exchanges and cultural interaction between China and the West, Chinese and Western artistic theories have also influenced each other, and there has been a certain degree of mutual absorption and integration. However, at the same time, theoretical differences and diversification trends are more obvious.
In the future development, with the awakening of art theory itself and the strengthening of its own value, art theory will emerge unprecedented prosperity composed of increasingly strong uniqueness, scientificity, rigor and richness.
The comparison between Chinese and western aesthetics should not only ask questions about our traditional aesthetics, but also ask questions about western aesthetics. Not only study their history, but also promote the solution of the problems we need to solve now and think about the problems existing in aesthetic education. Beauty is a speculative philosophy, the most subtle psychology and the most perceptual art, and beauty is the focus of cultural essence.
References:
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[5] column? Stolovic, The Essence of Aesthetic Value, China Social Sciences Press.
[6] Thomas? Monroe's scientific aesthetics.
[7] Yan' Introduction to Aesthetic Principles' Yellow River Publishing House
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