It has often been said that in Chinese painting, as in Japanese painting,
perspective is ignored. Nothing is further from the truth. This error
arises from the fact that we have confused one system of perspective with
perspective as a whole. There are as many systems of perspective as there
are conventional laws for the representation of space.
The practice of drawing and painting offers the student the following
problem in descriptive geometry: _to represent the three dimensions of
space by means of a plane surface of two dimensions_. The Egyptians and
Assyrians solved this problem by throwing down vertical objects upon one
plane, which demands a great effort of abstraction on the part of the
observer. European perspective, built up in the fifteenth century upon
the remains of the geometric knowledge of the Greeks, is based on the
monocular theory used by the latter. In this system, it is assumed that
the picture is viewed with the eye fixed on a single point. Therefore
the conditions of foreshortening--or distorting the actual dimensions
according to the angle from which they are seen--are governed by placing
in harmony the distance of the eye from the scheme of the picture, the
height of the eye in relation to the objects to be depicted, and the
relative position of these objects with reference to the surface employed.
[Illustration: PLATE II. PORTION OF A SCROLL BY KU K'AI-CHIH
British Museum, London.]
But, in assuming that the picture is viewed with the eye fixed on a single
point, we put ourselves in conditions which are not those of nature. The
European painter must therefore compromise with the exigencies of
binocular vision, modify the too abrupt fading of forms and, in fine,
evade over-exact principles. Thus he arrives at a _perspective de
sentiment_, which is the one used by our masters.
Chinese perspective was formulated long before that of the Europeans and
its origins are therefore different. It was evolved in an age when the
method of superimposing different registers to indicate different planes
was still being practiced in bas-reliefs. The succession of planes, one
above the other, when codified, led to a system that was totally different
from our monocular perspective. It resulted in a perspective as seen from
a height. No account is taken of the habitual height of the eye in
relation to the picture. The line of the horizon is placed very high,
parallel lines, instead of joining at the horizon, remain parallel, and
the different planes range one above the other in such a way that the
glance embraces a vast space. Under these conditions, the picture becomes
either high and narrow--a hanging picture--to show the successive planes,
or broad in the form of a scroll, unrolling to reveal an endless
panorama. These are the two forms best known under their Japanese names
of _kakemono_ and _makimono_.[2]
But the Chinese painter must attenuate the forms where they are parallel,
give a natural appearance to their position on different levels and
consider the degree of their reduction demanded by the various planes.
Even he must compromise with binocular vision and arrive at a _perspective
de sentiment_ which, like our own, while scientifically false, is
artistically true. To this linear perspective is added moreover an
atmospheric perspective.
Having elected from a very early time to paint in monochrome, Chinese
painters were led by the nature of this medium to seek to express
atmospheric perspective by means of tone values and harmony of shading
instead of by color. Thus they were familiar with chiaroscuro before the
European painters. Wang Wei established the principles of atmospheric
perspective in the eighth century. He explains how tints are graded, how
the increasing thickness of layers of air deprives distant objects of
their true coloring, substituting a bluish tinge, and how forms become
indistinct in proportion as their distance from the observer increases.
His testimony in this respect is similar to that of Leonardo da Vinci in
his "Treatise on Painting."
[2] The Chinese terms are _Li Chou_ for a vertical painting and
_Heng P'i_ for a horizontal painting.--TRANSLATOR.
[Illustration: PLATE III. KWANYIN. EIGHTH TO TENTH CENTURIES
Painting brought from Tun-huang by the Pelliot Expedition.
The Louvre, Paris.]