klonk wrote:Perspective drawing was in use (though not universally) by the sixteenth century in Europe, was known there earlier, and I see is no reason to suppose Chinese artists were unaware of its value.
What Graham mentioned is not perspective drawing but
one point perspective. It means that all lines that creates depth in the whole painting originates from one single point inside or outside the painting. I haven't reflected about the murals this way earlier, but one point perspective does not belong to the traditional painting styles. The way of arranging pictures comes from the format of the scroll, either vertical or horizontal. Creating and looking at paintings followed the way of "reading" the scroll which is different a Western style painting. The Chinese created stories within the paintings by dividing and separating different parts. They were meant to be looked at one part at a time. Thus there are perspective in paintings, but the perspective of different parts of the paintings don't match with the other parts. There is no central perspective for the whole painting. To suggest that Chinese traditional artists centuries ago would suddenly abandon their own traditions and rules of painting to make a western style type of arranging perspective is not a reasonable idea. In that case, there would be many other examples from the same time, as one could assume that this style must have been developed by practice amongst at least one group of artists. But there is no evidence of the one point perspective in earlier Chinese painting tradition. Even when the Jesuits brought science to China, they had an impact on Chinese cosmology and scientific thought as mathematics, but they seem to have had no greater impact on art.
This painting below illustrates the point above, it's from the tenth century. I took it from an article I found on the missing one point perspective in Chinese art. It's worth a look for anyone interested in Chinese art.
http://www.psy.ntu.edu.tw/vnl/paper/Chi ... 20Form.pdfThe saber is a Persian weapon, brought to Europe by the jihad of the month club, refined by (depending on whom you ask) by the Hungarians or the Poles into a well-practiced weapon.
One Chinese historian I met believed that the Saber was the oldest crafted weapon of China and had a very old history. But I see no reason for this type of weapon to be developed in several different cultures. A most basic idea.