Changing Perspectives Between Chinese Landscape Painting of Song Dynasty in the Tenth to Thirteenth Century and Western Landscape Painting in the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Century: Seeing Through Chinese Aesthetic Viewpoints and Pre-QinDaoism

Abstract

This paper is aimed at comparing the difference and similarity between Chineselandscape painting in the Northern and Southern Song dynasties and westernlandscape painting during the seventeenth century to nineteenth century throughinterdisciplinary method of combining David Sack’s sociological framework, Chinese aesthetic criteria of landscape and philosophical thoughts of Pre-QinDaoism. Firstly, it applies Sack’s axis of Subjectivity-Objectivity to explicatePhilips Koninck, Jeau-Simeon Chardin, John Constable, Eugene Boudin and evenClaude Monet’s Impressionist paintings are deeply rooted in “objective scientificobserver’s perspective” though every artist has unique artistic style due to personal “subjective participant perspective” which has solid fundament on the basis of subjectivity. Take Constable and Boudin as examples to explore their reflections on“skies” has their own philosophy. In spite of their contemplation on the essence of “skies” – God-like “infinity,” they admitted it’s impossibility to depict the essenceof phenomenon such as infinity and finally turned to paint the changing clouds intending to grasp every beautiful movement of shadows and light.