The document summarizes the key differences between Western and Chinese landscape painting traditions. In the West, the aim is realistic illusion and accuracy, showing a specific view from one angle. In China, landscapes are conceptual spaces that do not depict a single view, allowing the viewer to enter from any point and travel through mentally. The Chinese landscape incorporates Daoist concepts of yin, yang, and the void between as a space for meditation. It requires active participation from the viewer to enter the artist's mind rather than just borrowing their eyes.

1. Landscape of the Soul
By: Nathalie Trouveroy
A PowerPoint presentation by: Mrinal Ghosh, PGT
Directorate of Secondary Education, Govt. Of Tripura, INDIA

2. About the Writer:
• The author Nathalie Trouveroy is an art historian
who came in limelight because of her translated
work ' City of Djinns', a book by William
Dalrymple. She is the wife of Belgian ambassador
to India. She has travelled various cities of the
world with her husband. She holds a Master’s
degree in history of art and archaeology from
university of Belgium. She plan to write her next
book on old Delhi architecture like Jama Masjid
and Chandni Chowk.

3. Landscape of the Soul
Eighth century painter Wu Daozi was asked by
the Tang Emperor Xuanzong to paint a
landscape to decorate a palace wall. The
master hid his work behind a screen. Only the
Emperor could see it. The Emperor admired
the wonderful scene. He discovered forests,
high mountains, waterfalls, clouds floating in
the enormous sky, men on hilly paths and
birds in flight.

4. Landscape of the Soul
Then the painter asked the king respectfully to
look in a cave at the foot of the mountain. He
said a spirit lived there. The painter clapped
his hands. The entrance to the cave opened.
The painter remarked that the cave was very
splendid from inside. He offered to show the
way to His Majesty. The painter entered the
cave, but the entrance closed behind him.

5. Landscape of the Soul
• The Emperor was astonished. Before he could
move or speak a word, the painting had
vanished from the wall. Not a sign of Wu
Daozi’s brush was left. The artist was never
seen again. This was his last painting.

6. Landscape of the Soul
Take another famous Chinese story about a
painter. He would not draw the eye of a
dragon he had painted. He feared that it would
fly out of the painting. Such stories played an
important part in China’s traditional education.
The books of Confucius
and Zhuangzi are full of
them.

7. Landscape of the Soul
In 15th century Antwerp, a skilled blacksmith
named Quinten Metsys fell in love with a
painter’s daughter. The father of the girl would
not accept a son-in-law in such a profession.
One day Quinten went into the painter’s studio
secretly. He painted a fly on the master’s latest
painting. It was painted with delicate realism.
The painter took it for a real one. He tried to hit
it away.

8. Landscape of the Soul
Then he realised the matter. He took Quinten
as an apprentice. Then Quinten married his
beloved. He went on to become one of the
most famous painters of his age.

9. Landscape of the Soul
The above stories from China and Flanders
illustrate what each form of art is trying to
achieve. In Europe the aim is a perfect
illusionistic likeness. The Chinese Emperor
gets a painting painted. He appreciates its
outer appearance. The artist reveals to him the
true meaning of his work.

10. Landscape of the Soul
A western painting reproduces an actual view. The
European painter wants the beholders to look at a
particular landscape from a specific angle, i.e.
exactly as he saw it. The Chinese painter does not
choose a single viewpoint. His landscape is not a
‘real’ one. One can enter it from any point and
travel in it in a leisurely movement. This is more
true in the case of horizontal scroll. Here one
slowly opens one section of the painting, then rolls
it up and moves on to the other.

11. Landscape of the Soul
This adds a dimension of time. It also requires
the active participation of the viewer—a
participation which is physical as well as
mental. The European painter wants the
viewer to borrow his eyes. The Chinese
painter does not want him to do so. He wants
the viewer to enter his mind. The landscape is
an inner one, a spiritual and conceptual space.
This concept is expressed as ‘shanshui’ which
literally means ‘mountain-water’.

12. Landscape of the Soul
Used together they represent the word
‘Landscape’. The mountain is ‘yang’, while the
water is ‘yin’. The interaction of yin and yang is a
fundamental notion of Daoism. There is a third
essential element also—the middle void, where
their interaction takes place. This can be
compared with the yogic practice of pranayam
breathe in, retain, breathe out. The suspension
of breath is the void where meditation occurs.
The middle void is essential.

13. Landscape of the Soul
Nothing can happen without it. Hence the
white unpainted space is very important in
Chinese landscape. Man finds a fundamental
role in this space—between Heaven and
Earth. He becomes the medium of
communication between both poles of the
universe. His presence is essential. He is the
eye of the landscape.

14. Landscape of the Soul
French painter Jean Dubuffet first created the
concept of ‘art brut’ or ‘raw art’ in the 1940s.
Then the art of the untrained visionary was of
minority interest. The ‘outsider art’ has
gradually become the
fastest growing area of
interest in international
modern art. Art Brut

15. Landscape of the Soul
This particular type of work is the creation of
those who have ‘no right’ to be artists, as they
have received no formal training, yet they
show talent and artistic insight.

16. Landscape of the Soul
The work of 80 year old Nek Chand is India’s
biggest contribution to ‘outsider art’. He has
made a garden sculpted with stone and
recycled material. It is known to the world
today as the Rock Garden, at Chandigarh. His
art has been recognised as an outstanding
testimony of the difference a single man can
make when he lives his dream.

17. Rock Garden, Chandigarh
• As