Question

Review of the landscape of the soul by Nathalie trouveroy

Answer 1

The writer contrasts Chinese art with European art by using two stories. The Tang Emperor Xuanzong commissioned the painter Wu Daozi to decorate a palace wall. When it was done the Emperor admired the scene. The painter drew the Emperor's attention to a cave and when he clapped his hands the entrance of the cave opened. The painter entered but before Emperor could move the entrance closed and the painting vanished, along with the artist. In another story, a painter wouldn't draw the eye of a dragon he had painted for fear it would fly out of the painting. The writer then cites a story representative of Western painting in which a master blacksmith Quinten Metsys fell in love with a painter's daughter. To be accepted as a son-in-law Quinten painted a fly on the painter's latest panel. When the painter tried to swat it away he realised the truth - Quinten was taken on as an apprentice and married his beloved.

These stories reveal what each form tries to achieve. The Europeans want a perfect illusionstic likeness while in Asia it is the essence of inner life and spirit. In the Chinese story only the artist knows the way within and he reaches his goal beyond material appearance. Unlike a Western figurative painting a classical Chinese landscape does not reproduce an actual view and one can enter it from any point and travel in it. It requires the active participation of the viewer both physically and mentally. Man becomes a conduit of communication or 'the eye of the landscape.'

Answer 2

Chapter ‘Landscape of the Soul’ by Nathalie Trouveroy is about creation. The section consists of two parts. The first part has been taken from ‘Landscape of the Soul: Ethics and Spirituality in Chinese Painting’; and the second part is from ‘Getting Inside ‘Outsider Art’, an essay was reproduced by Brinda Suri in Hindustan Times.

The first part administers with the technique of painting.

There is an allusion of two myths in it. The first story is regarding Wu Daozi, a prominent Chinese painter, who subsisted in the eighth century. He was a fellow illustrator and had been employed by the Tang Emperor Xuanzong, to furnish a palace wall. He made a wonderful painting with high cliffs,  parks waterfalls, clouds hovering in the transparent, big blue sky, men touring and working on rocky paths, birds flying, and a cave located at the foot of the cliff, where lived a spirit. As the illustrator was conferring the composition to the sovereign, he slammed instructions; the opening to the cave revealed, the painter got in; the painting disappeared and Wu Daozi never came out.

The withdrawal of the painting from the wall implies the consciousness of the religious inner world. Only the administrators know the way inside and can go exceeding any material condition. In another memorable story, a brilliant

Chinese painter declined to draw the heart of a monster he had resigned because he was worried that the monster would fly out of the landscape.

The second story in the first part is about Antwerp, a master metalworker described as Quinten Metsys fell in love with a painter’s heiress. The author do not want to marry her daughter in such a position. However, Antwerp had to affirm Quinten Metsys as his son in law because he designed a fly on his tribunal with such susceptible authenticity that it looked real one.