Feb 03 2010
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“ Some of the great teachers of China appear to have had a similar view of the value of art to that held by Pope Gregory the Great. They thought of art as a means of reminding people of the great examples of virtue in the golden ages of the past. Once of the earliest illustrated Chinese book-scrolls that have preserved is a collection of great examples of virtuous ladies, written in the spirit of Confucius. It is said to go back to the painter Ku K’’ai-chi, who lived in the fourth century A.D. The illustration (Fig. 94) shows a husband unjustly accusing his wife, and it has all the dignity and grace we connect with Chinese art. It is as clear in its gestures and arrangement as one might expect from a picture which also aims at driving home a lesson. It shows, moreover, that the Chinese artist had mastered the difficult art of representing movement. There is nothing rigid in this early Chinese work, because the predilection for undulating lines imparts a sense of movement to the whole picture.
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From The Story of Art (Gombrich, pg. 104-5)
Illus., Boy Scouts Manual [original, date, unk.]
