GREEK AND CHINESE ART IDEALS 15 



example, the upper articulating surface of the thigh bone is 

 sawn in two, the cancellous tissue of the bone shows arches 

 of the utmost precision stronger weight for weight and more 

 beautiful than any as yet designed by man. This would be 

 a modern scientific development of the Greek spirit. It is 

 quite within the Greek spirit to accentuate the fact that in 

 the human frame however far one goes into detail, even to the 

 ultimate physical analysis afforded by the microscope, the 

 combination of strength and beauty is ever present. Nature 

 tends always towards form and precision. This is probably 

 what the great Eodin means when he says: 'All artists 

 ought to see and to reproduce faithfully what they see, 

 simply to follow nature, for she is always artistic, always 

 beautiful.' 



The Environment of Man Predominates Over the 

 Figure in Chinese Art. 



Perhaps the main difference between the art ideals of 

 Greece and China is that the Greeks concentrated on the 

 human form as the essential type, while the Chinese have 

 little conception of the beauty of the human figure. Among 

 the Chinese there seems to be an irresistible tendency to 

 make a joke of it by distortion and exaggeration, or at best 

 to let it merely serve as a frame for displaying voluminous 

 garments which effectually conceal even the general shape 

 of the figure. But as regards the rest of nature the Chinese 

 excelled the Greeks in their appreciation of landscape, of the 

 animal kingdom other than man, and especially of the 

 natural beauty of mountains, rocks, trees and flowers. 

 Wherever the subject is man, whether man actual or man 

 imaginary as depicted in their varied mythology, the Greeks 

 were incomparably in advance of the Chinese. And in so far 

 as man may be regarded as the greatest work of nature, 

 Greek art is greater than Chinese. But is man the greatest 

 work of nature? Is man greater than his environment in 

 regard to art ideals? Art may indeed be regarded as an 

 artificial human product. Landscape art is considered not 

 so much an imitation of nature as a representation of nature 

 which has the imprint of the artist's mind upon it. 



The Athenian and the Confucian Scholar Alike in Desire 

 for Harmony, Balance and Eeticence. 



The Athenians were a race of artists who took a poetical 

 view of life. The typical Greek had something in common 

 with the Confucian scholar, whose restrained bearing and 



