This past Thursday I attended a lecture on “Landscape Painting, Cartographic Practice, and Geographical Thought in Song-Dynasty China” at UCLA. Prior to sharing the details of lecture, let me set the scene. We were in a small, dark room with not enough chairs. The only light was the light reflecting from the screen. It was difficult to see my own notes due to darkness. Chairs found along the wall were occupied and so were the spaces on the corners of the room. The door was being block by a few people standing. As an educator, I should know the frustration that may arise when trying to conduct a lesson and seeing a distracted audience. However, I had difficulty concentrating in the previously described environment. (All I kept thinking about was, “now I know how students feel when the learning environment is not comfortable”. This experience reminded me of the beginning of the school year. I had room for 38 students, yet I had over 50 students in my class. I had students standing along the back or sitting wherever they found space. It was difficult to teach and learn.) That being said, let me return to the lecture.
The Song dynasty was influential in the formation of landscape painting. During this dynasty, paintings of landscapes were subtle. In the paintings, distances were conveyed through the use of distorted outlines. Another detail was mountain contours disappearing into the mist. High emphasis was placed on the spiritual qualities of the painting and/or on the ability of the artist to reveal the inner harmony of man/nature. Topographical landscape painting raised questions in regards to a geographical framework. During the lecture we spent a good amount of time focusing on depictions of the Yangzi River and other paintings. Some of the paintings that we analyzed were the following: Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangzi River, Shu River, Map of the Capital City, Map of the West lake, woodcut illustration from the Gazetteer of Lin’an during the Xianchin Era, and Li Song’s West lake handscroll. Analysis of pictorial strategies revealed how topographical painting constructs images of place, region, and empire. Out of the paintings previously mentioned the one that stood out to me was “Ten Thousand Miles Along the Yangzi River”. This handscroll painting is one of the earliest surviving paintings to depict the full length of the Yangzi River. It measures about 54 feet and displays a bird's-eye view of the river from its source in the Min Mountains to the Yellow Sea. Traditional Chinese maps show the south at the top and north at the bottom. It also displays east as downriver (left) and west as upriver (right).
(I apologize for not providing a more detailed account, but this was the best I could do under the circumstances.)
edited by malvarenga on 5/11/2015
.
