The liquid element interacting with the rocky solidity of the mountain conveys the Chinese and Japanese idea of landscape. Shan-shui is not, I should stress, a ‘view’ in the English sense of landscape but the thing itself: a piece of living nature in which the true spirit of landscape is sealed. Chinese and Japanese aesthetics of painting embody these principles, painting being aimed not at the imitation of outer forms but at the painter’s being absorbed by tones and atmospheres. At this point the texts say that the artist should avoid direct observation – looking with the eyes – in favour of indirect observing – looking, as it were, through … Continue reading Grazia Marchianò