24 GREEK AND CHINESE ART IDEALS 



The Post-impressionism originated by Cezanne is 

 perhaps the only European school of landscape at all com- 

 parable with the Chinese. This resembled Sung landscape 

 in that it was synthetic rather than imitative, aiming at 

 painting the spirit rather than the body. Chinese paintings 

 often seem to be just guide posts to the imagination. At 

 first sight they appear to be careless or trivial impressionistic 

 sketches, but in reality prove to be full of subtle intellec- 

 tuality. 



Burne-Jones is unconsciously in touch with Chinese 

 painting when he says "I mean by a picture a beautiful 

 romantic dream of something that never was — in a better 

 light than ever shone." 



Lawrence Binyon in his ''Painting in the Far East" says 

 "The great original art tradition of Europe has its home in 

 Greece ; and the great original art tradition of Asia has its 

 home in China. Each race is pre-eminent in its feeling for 

 harmony and rhythm, the foundation of all art." 



Ruskin, while developing his moral philosophy of art in 

 his "Laws of Fesole," defines the art of man as "The expres- 

 sion of his rational and disciplined delight in the forms and laws 

 of creation of which he forms a part." In other words art 

 is science materialised and is bound up with nature study, 

 especially with the discovery of the beauties of form and 

 colour ever present but not often seen unless the mind is 

 properly instructed to discern that which is best worth seeing. 

 Nature has a strong bias toward the beautiful. A carcase or 

 a garbage heap within a comparatively short space of time 

 is entirely purified by natural processes and covered with 

 flowers. There is no real death or loss of energy. The 

 death of one organism gives life or sustenance to another. 

 Decomposition and decay is merely a process in the creation 

 of new life. Except in those parts of the world which are 

 devoid of water all places unspoiled by man tend towards 

 the beautiful. 



