Page 361 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

PICTORIAL ART. 107

really had one side oi the face darker than the other : the shaded
nose was a grave defect to their eyes, and some of tliem even believed
that it had come there accidentally. The Chinese tendency has always
been to return to the vision and method of their old masters, in the
lines, somewhat, of our own pre-Raphaelite movement. The noble
simplicity of their compositions, the subtlety of their colour schemes,
and the intensity with which they aim at the most direct and
telling expression of their theme are in many respects akin to the
aims of the best Japanese school, and to the genius of Whistler,
it may be added, among western masters.
Throughout the development of Chinese painting in its succes-
sion of epochs and phases, amid a great variety of styles and
different schools, it is possible, as M. Paleologue remarks, to detect
from the earliest times a certain unity and harmonious arrangement
of details, prompted by a kind of instinctive accord among the
artists in their manner of interpreting the material properties of
things and living beings, so that they always seize the essential
points to express the sensations and ideas suggested to their minds,
and translate, so to speak, a kind of inner vision idealised by them-
selves. Among the general characteristics of Chinese paintings the
most striking, and the one which has prevailed most strongly
throughout its long historical evolution, is the graphic quality of the
painting ; Chinese painters are, first of all, draughtsmen and
calligraphists.
Chinese script, in fact, was originally ideographic, the earliest
characters having been more or less exact reproductions of objects
;
the phonetic element was not adopted till much later, in the same
natural course of development which analogous scripts have under-
gone in other parts of the world. This is indicated by the name of
"
wHn, picture of the object," given to the primitive characters, which
are said traditionally to have been invented by Ts'ang-hsieh, and to
have replaced the knotted cords and notched tallies previously used,
like the qiiipos of the ancient Peruvians, for recording events. The
8941. 2 S 2