Reading response paper 2 - Assignment Example

Pictorial Art Introduction Looking closely at the art of China, people can realize a meaningful series of phases that can guide them on the historical concept of painting. Although it is possible to appreciate the artistic value of art of any period without any such concept, understanding this work is an imperative aspect. Chinese painting never started with painting, but began with ornament designs that were freely invented for imitating nature. Surrendering from the freedom of invented form to the lack of freedom of observed forms was seen as a fateful step that was taken during Western Han period (206 B.C-A.D 8).

It never mattered if a piece of work was ornamental or representational, but the significance was the quality of aliveness. The quality that appears from artistic value does not necessarily depend on subject matter or motif. The first attempt to come up with realistic scenes in a pictorial form is found during the period of warring states (The Great Painters of China 3). The scenes are found in relieve and intaglio on bronze, which represent the figures of warriors, hunters, boats men, and musicians.

Comparison Figure 6 is a clay title from Szechwam that shows less imposing objects. These objects are a clear representation of birds’ hunters at the lake at the upper side while the lower side is a representation of people harvesting in the field. The lake is symbolized by flowering lotus and big fish instead of being represented. On the other hand, the sky is full of wild ducks in flight and there is no appearance of a distant shoreline (The Great Painters of China 5). The harvesters are seen standing on a tilted position and this is evident through simple device thinning rows of the plants on them.

In addition, while most of the figures are seen on an imaginary ground near the lower edge, one of the men is seen at the deeper space.Originally, it is evident that painting was concentrated on ornamental design. However, during the early parts of Han dynasty, there was a change by representation of reality in pictorial form from various sources. The most important thing was creating expressive conversation. The scene showed in figure 13 represents the story of a grandson Yuan Ku who in a period of starvation saved his grandfather from dying in the wilderness.

In addition, he saved his father from the guilt of parricide. At the left side of the picture, the grand father is seen squatting abandoned under a cedar tree by the stream. Yuan Ku picks an empty stretcher to go and fetch his grandfather, but his father yells at him saying that the stretcher is useless. The next scene narrates that the stretcher will one day be of use. The father is humbled after understanding this point. He is ready and willing to help his son carry the child.The setting is framed in a manner with strange vertical rocks that are slanting and rise from the bottom of the scene.

Another rock is placed at the center to separate the scene on the left to that in the right. Between these rocks, there are tall trees that recall the arrangement of evenly spaced trees on the brick of fourth century tomb.Works Cited The Great Painters of China. The Rise of Pictorial Art. Accessed February 20th 2015, Web,