How the Western Artists Have Approached Orients - Research Paper Example

? 11 November Western Artists have approached the orient at various moments with perfectly honourable intentions and "genuine respect" Introduction: This paper shall focus on how the western artists have approached orients. The methodology adopted in the research paper consists of a research-based question the answer to which shall be provided in the body and the conclusion of the paper. At the end of the paper the writer shall conclude by saying that the western artists indeed have approached the orient in a honourable and respected fashion, as the case ought to have been. Orientalism is a term, which is used in history fir the depiction of the Eastern art by the writers, artists, painters and authors belonging from the western countries. In order to understand the contribution of the western artists on orientalism, it is pertinent to understand the definition of orientalism. Following is the definition of Orientalism: “The countries of Asia, especially of eastern Asia.” Orient is the word, which has been given to the east and the art of the east, which consists of the Middle East, India, Turkey and North Africa. “Figures in Middle Eastern dress appear in Renaissance and Baroque works by such artists as Bellini, Veronese, and Rembrandt, and the opulent eroticism of harem scenes appealed to the French Rococo aesthetic.” The earliest indications of Orient Art in the western culture started to show up in the 15th century, when the renaissance movement had started. The intermingling of the Western people with the Asian and the eastern culture was paramount and fundamental towards the development of Orientalism. Beginning of Orientalism: “In 1798, a French army led by General Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt and occupied the country until 1801. The European presence in Egypt attracted Western travelers to the Near and Middle East, many of whom captured their impressions in paint or print. In 1809, the French government published the first installment of the twenty-four-volume Description de l'Egypte (1809–22), illustrating the topography, architecture, monuments, natural life, and population of Egypt.” Once the French initiated orientalism, more and more European nations started coming forwards by taking interest in the culture of the Middle East and eastern Asia. The taste for orientalism manifested itself in European architecture, the building styles and the furniture. Orientalism has positively influenced the design and art of the European architecture. Orientalism in Architecture: The Middle Eastern style of architecture had a major influence and was a source of inspiration for the European countries, as well as motivating them to build similar style of building in their own countries. The Guildhall, London, is an important example where the British adopted the Indian style of architecture during the late 17th century. The Indian style of architecture was also known as Hindoo Style of architecture. Another example of the Indian style of architecture is the Sezincote house, which was built from the inspiration of the nawab style of Bengal. The intermingling of the culture of the east with the western adaptation had already started once the British invaded India. It is imperative to state that the British were heavily inspired by the tomb style architecture of the Muslims and the Nawabs, and that reflected in their sense of architecture design of the future. Apart from learning the influence of the Indian architecture, the Western people also took great influence form the Turkish style of construction, which was an integral part of the 19th century French architecture. French Orientalism: French orientalism kick started in the early 18th century after Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Egypt as part of his annexation agenda in Asia. The French invasion of Egypt has a great role to play to influence the French tribes and locals to start inheriting the Egypt form of art back to their home country. The major influence which the French took form Egypt was in the form of painting, especially oil painting which was extremely unique in that part of the world. The unsuccessful invasion of Egypt and Syria in 1801 allowed intermingling of Egyptology with the French culture, thus leading to many great paintings done by renowned French artists like Baron Gros. Buddhism and Orientalism: Another great oriental art was that whose inspiration derived from Buddhism, which in various ways influenced art throughout southern and eastern Asia. Early Buddhists had not presumed to make images of Buddha but had worshiped him in the form of a stupa, a burial mound containing some of his relics. The stupa was crowned by a stone umbrella, the symbol of royalty, and was ornamented with mythological sculpture and surrounded by a wall with a high, ornamented gate. During the 1st and 2nd centuries B.C. in Ghandhara, India, sculptors under Greek influence first started to make images of Buddha. They pictured him as an athletic young man with a Greek coiffure and a gown with heavy folds. This was the prototype of Buddha statues, but the figure soon lost all Hellenistic characteristics. Under the Guptas (4th and early 5th centuries) Buddhistic art reached its climax. The Buddha had now become highly spiritualized. Muscles had been smoothed out. Only the seams of the gown were shown. The coiffure developed into the mysterious hump on Buddha's head. The Greek invasion done by Alexander took a lot of inspiration from the Buddhist way of living and adopted the same into his own culture. It can also be said that Greece was not the only inspiration from the Buddhist art form. The Far East was also heavily influenced by the art form of Buddhist. Since they took to this religion in a very strong fashion, the influence of Buddhism radically changed the way sculptors were created by those people. The Japanese, Chinese, and the other far eastern countries that adopted this religion started designing their gods in the shape of the Buddha. During the spread of Buddhism in China and other countries, the architecture, painting, sculptors, ceramics, crockery, clothes started getting influenced with the shape and looks of the Buddha statute. Cambodia is another country, which was motivated by the art form of Buddhism. Looking at the way various European cultures and civilization adopted to the eastern form of painting, architecture, sculptor, one can say with utmost confidence that the Western artists learned a lot and adopted the great things about the eastern art into their culture with great respect and care. This is not to say that the eastern culture was not disrespected at all, since there are cases of British looting and plundering Indian statutes and buildings from the medieval age, but at the same time the majority of the artists learned a great deal and took everything back and applied the same into the best way possible into their own art form. The Travels of Marco Polo: A look into literature as an orient art form This part of the essay shall examine the celebrated 13th century novel ‘Travels of Marco Polo’ written by Rustichello Da Pisa, a travelogue written into notes by the writer when he was touring part of Asia, Persia, China and Indonesia from 1271-1291. Da Pisa wrote the book as told to him by Marco Polo form the time of his adventures. This books gives a detailed outlook at the culture prevailing in the east during the 13th century as witnessed by Marco Polo, hailed as one of he greatest travel writers of all time. This book is a classic example of western artists mixing in the orient art form and adapting to orientalism in the most seamless way possible. The account of Marco Polo has become a classic now, it was written down with perfect honourable intentions along with supreme respect. The book makes comments about the religion pertaining in the east, with respect to Islam and Buddhism. It gave an honest account of Buddhism as ‘idol-worship’ and talks about Islam as a religion, which believes in one God. Through the medium of this book the Western writers started influencing themselves with the culture of Central and East Asia. Until then not much was known to the European writers with respect to the cultural aspect of Asia, however, with the advent of the book things started changing for the better as more and more writers started coming out of their shell and indulged n the orientalism form of writing which was initiated by the book of Marco Polo. Music and Orientalism: Although Orientalism was not able to positively transform Western music as how it did with painting and architecture, however, one cannot deny the importance of Egyptian music inspiring the great artists such as Beethoven and Mozart. These artists took to Egyptian classical music and mixed this form of music to produce even sweeter and more unique melodies in their art form. Not much is known about the fusion of orient music and western form of music, but at the same time Mozart and Beethoven did take to Egyptian and Arabian music in the best possible manner. British Orientalism: With the advent of the British into the Indian Territory from the 18th century, it started making huge waves across the seven seas into the influence of art form from the Indian cultural heritage. The British took great pride in spreading their wings through the territory of India, Persia and other parts of Asia, but at the same time many of their writers and painters took cues from the Indian style of painting in depicting objective characters. The ancient Indian statute makers, who had done some amazing form of sculptor in, already perfected the display of emotion into this form or art. The British took great inspiration from the statute of Khajuraho, which had shown naked women in such a serene fashion, which was never done before. The depiction of female goddess was also a motivational factor for the British to learn this form of art and transport it back to England, where they started to experiment more with sand, oil paints etc. to get a more lively feel of art just like the Indians. Conclusion: The idea and the motive of this paper was to prove that the western artists respected the orient and borrowed the art form wit the best of the intentions. In this paper many examples of orient form of art have been provided where the western artists took cues from the Asian style of writing, painting, architecture, sculptors and music. They adopted all these Asian form of arts into their own culture and the results were profound for them. The influence which orientalism generated among the people from the western countries has been phenomenal. It is without doubt the Westerners saw the opportunity to borrow cultural ideas from the East as a mark of respect for its beauty along with the love for the arts, which was quite different in Europe. Countries like Turkey, India, China had contributed immensely in the growth of orient in Europe, and apart from borrowing Music, literature, painting, the European borrowed a whole new set of a style of living, which included wearing Indian clothes, dining Indian food along with the fact that they also spoke Hindi, which is the traditional Indian language. Once the British started expanding their frontiers into India, there was a lot of potential from the way Indian art inspired them to take up sculptors, develop clay crockery for which they hand immense fondness. In essence, Orient provided Western art form a new lease of life, and they were greatly thankful for taking Asian ideas into practice from their own European perspective which was a new genre in itself. 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