The first sketches of the landscape in the form of contours of the mountains, trees and rivers appeared in primitive cave drawings. At that time, people made the first attempts to portray themselves surrounded by wildlife. Landscape elements can also be found in the art of ancient Greece. Halls of the Knossos Palace on Crete have so far preserved the frescoes, wall painting with a realistic pictures of people against the sea, garden and mountain landscape. Before appearing in the west, landscape as an independent genre appeared in ancient China as a lyrical direction, celebrating the beauty and elegance of pristine nature.
Chinese artists subtly copied mountains, rocks, bamboo, branches, flowers, cherries and pine curved. The landscape paintings were created in the form of a single-color monochrome picture accompanied by hieroglyphs bearing some significant meaning. Chinese landscape art has had a great influence on the development of art of the whole Far East: Japan, Mongolia, and Korea (Freeland).
Ink painting (suibokuga or sumi-e) is a Chinese style, borrowed by the Japanese artists in the 14th century (Satō). It was gradually adapted to Japanese tastes, and at the end of the 15th century turned in the mainstream of Japanese painting. It has absorbed some elements of pure Japanese Yamato-e style, which was, in turn, formed on the basis of Sino-Japanese synthesis of the Kano school (Satō). In later centuries, its influence was evident even in such mutually exclusive styles as Rimpi styles and artists-writers (bundzinga).
Suibokuga is full of monochrome traits. It is characterized by the use of black ink (sumi), which in the solid form is basically charcoal or produced from black Chinese ink, which is pounded in the inkstone, then diluted with water and applied with a brush onto paper or parchment. Monochrome traits offers an endless selection of tonal options that the Chinese have long ago learned to differentiate between the tones (Satō). Suibokuga sometimes allows the use of colors, but limits them to thin, transparent strokes, where the main subject lines are always executed in ink. The ink painting shares such essential characteristics with the art of calligraphy as tightly controlled expression and technical mastery of the form (Takeuchi).
The ink painting technique of landscapes, which Chinese artists used, especially flourished in the era of the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), and was first introduced to the Japanese in the 13th century. However, only after getting acquainted with the monochrome paintings of artists who lived during the Song (960 - 1279) and Yuan (1279 - 1368) dynasties, also with paintings made in Japan, China and Korea in the era of the Muromachi (1333 - 1568), simultaneously with Zen Buddhism and other elements of Chinese culture, Zen monks have transformed it into the mainstream of Japanese fine arts (Freeland).
Among the first Zen monks who worked in the suibokuga genre in the 15th century, we should mention Cao Ning and Mokuan Reyen. Master of ink painting Shubun, who lived in the 15th century, was associated with the Academy of Arts at the temple in Kyoto Sёkokudzi. It’s more well-known follower Sasso Toyo left a very important artistic heritage. He created the "Haboku Landscape " ("Haboku sansui zu", 1495) which is an example of the “ink spraying” style – absolutely free, expressive ink painting, initially associated with an eccentric Chinese artist Wang Mo of the 8th century (Takeuchi).
Among the earliest ink paintings of the Muromachi era there are some which idealized the image of secluded scholastic rural shelters (sёsaydzu) against the backdrop of the landscape they were located in. These pictures, often played the role of farewell gifts that were presented in recognition of mutual spiritual purposes and belonged to the sigadziku category ("painted scrolls with verses"). An outstanding example of this is the work of Mintё "House by the brook" ("zu Keyin Shochiku", 1413) (Takeuchi).
The landscape has become an important subject of ink painting. Early Japanese landscapes, executed in ink, often included fantastic towering mountain peaks and deep gorges, apparently copying the Chinese landscape painting, and having nothing to do with the local topography. With the gradual naturalization of ink painting one could also observe the naturalization of the landscape component. Sass started this process by drawing the real Japanese landscapes, as is shown in his masterpiece "Amanohashidate" (about 1501). The style of landscape painting has become even more naturalized in the works of the future artists belonging to the Ami and Soga schools, whose soft, watery landscapes as if incorporated elements of Yamato-e in one of its varieties, which was practiced by the Tosa school (Takeuchi).
In the final stages of the Muromachi era scholars saw a gradual secularization of ink painting and its separation from Zen Buddhism. The beginning of this shift was marked by the works of the Ami school artists - Noami, Geyami and Soami - seconded to the court of the Shogun. This trend reached its peak in the early phases of the Edo period (1600 - 1868) and was reflected in the works of the Kano school artists whose Sino-Japanese synthesis of the monochrome carcasses and Polychrome crushed gold powder met the expectations and requirements of the “new” judges from the ranks of the newly risen military class (Satō). The latter insisted on making grandiose compositions for large architectural complexes (Freeland).
Landscape ink painting continued to develop throughout the Edo period as a genre exuding violent energy. This development was endeavored by artists of such drastically different from each other stylistic directions as Rimpi and bundzinga (nanga). Sotatsu, Rimpi school master, invented a rich "trickling effect" (tarasikomi), which is achieved by applying ink dripping to the still raw strokes and layers of ink. Japanese artists, for example, Yosa Buson and Uraga Gёkudo like the old Zen monks, continued to portray ink landscapes and other attributes of the Chinese thematics (Freeland). The first generation of Japanese artists based their work on Chinese samples, which they knew, mostly from the guidelines published in the form of printed boards with engravings. Later they were able to master their own idiosyncratic styles. After 1868 the suibokuga tradition was maintained by such artists of the Japanese style (nihonga) as Yokoyama Taikan, Hisida Syunso and Shimomura Kandzan.
In the European art of the Middle Ages landscape was present in the paintings only as decorations necessary for religious themes, battle scenes and portraits. During this period, critics noticed unsuccessful attempts to show the depth of space, violate proportions and scale of the composition. Only in the Renaissance, artists began to study the linear and aerial perspective, which was a breakthrough in the history of the landscape (Andrews).
Interest in landscape in the era of the High Renaissance grew, and was formed by the Dutch, German, Italian Schools with the characteristic techniques and writing scenes. Special subspecies of landscape appeared – architectural and seascape. Later artists established the canons of the so-called idealistic landscape, perfect world. Such pictures resembled theatrical scenery with gigantic trees and beautiful ruins of buildings on the edges of the paintings, meadows and fields instead of scenery and mountain ranges and clear sky on the horizon.
Landscape became an independent genre in the 16th century in Northern Europe (Freeland). Great success was achieved by Dutch landscape painters of the 17th century. Landscape for the first time has incorporated all features that have become characteristic of all subsequent Dutch painting of the 17th century: the people's loyalty to the understanding of native wildlife without glorification of the fantastic works of poetry and a sense of simple motifs. They created a very realistic picture of the native nature in a more truthful observation of the relatively small size paintings (Freeland).
It is impossible not to mention the Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder, whose depictions of nature are one of the top priorities of the artist. His works devoted to seasons, Brueghel the Elder in a poetic and at the same time realistic was depicted the harsh northern nature. Characteristically, in a landscape he always placed the various people involved with their daily chores ("Children's Games", 1560; "Hunters in the Snow", 1565; "The Magpie on the Gallows", 1568; "The Parable of the Blind", 1567).
In the 17th century there was a large number of national schools, which formed all sorts of genres and varieties. This period of history has created the preconditions for the successful development of the landscape genre in the future. In the 18th century, the art of the French painters became prominent. They no longer sought to idealize nature, but set the task to show the natural beauty of the surrounding world. A new look at the landscape was caused by the emergence of plein air painting (Albala).
The work of artists outside the workshops enabled careful observation of nature, more natural images of the changing weather and lighting. A huge influence on landscape painting had been made by the impressionists. They painted lively and simple unpretentious scenes of nature and everyday life. Impressionistic landscape remains the most popular way to represent the world at present (Griffel). The tradition of landscape painting were continued by artists of the 20th century. New directions in the development of landscape, such as industrial, commercial and space landscape appeared.
Comparing the two ways of development, western and non-western, it is easy to single out several characteristic features. If the “Oriental” landscape tradition remains true to ink painting in the monochrome style, with a rare use of color, whereas the western tradition presupposes the use of color as a means to be as realistic as possible. Unrealistic topography of the “oriental” landscapes is countered by realistic images of the west. However, one of the most important differences is that the landscapes of the Chinese, Japanese and Korean artists initially held a significant meaning, which was even inscribed in the form of a letter on the painting itself, whereas in the western tradition landscape initially did not convey any significant meaning. These differences determined the following development of the landscape genre in the history of art.
Works Cited
Albala, Mitchell. Landscape painting: essential concepts and techniques for plein air and studio practice. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2009. Print.
Andrews, Malcolm. Landscape and western art. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Print.
Freeland, Cynthia A. Art theory: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.
Griffel, Lois. Painting the impressionist landscape: lessons in interpreting light and color. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2008. Print.
Satō, Shōzō. Sumi-e : the art of Japanese ink painting. Tokyo Rutland, Vt: Tuttle Pub, 2010. Print.
Takeuchi, Melinda R. Taiga's true views : the language of landscape painting in eighteenth century Japan. Stanford, Calif: Stanford Univ. Press, 1992. Print.
