The piece of work, “Meditation in a cave”, was created by Ren Yu in 1899, under Chinese culture, with FADIS id 106028. It is now presented in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Through traditional ink and color, Ren Yu depicted a quiet scenario of uninhabited place among mountains foot and river, with a figure in orange sitting in a cave in this picture. Using a little green, orange color together with the large scale fulfilled with ink made this drawing stand out and interesting.
The figure in meditation, more like a hermit, sitting in a cave where there is no other people near by, usually reminds people of a lot of thoughts about its in ancient Chinese and different practices of meditation in Asia and Europe.
Besides, it also revealed a relation between human and nature in that period, which is rare to see in the modern society.
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This work is represented with ink and color on paper which is a hanging scroll, with scale of 114.0 cm * 39.1cm. When first seeing this painting, most of its was filled with a jagged overhanging cliff, and Ren Yu used ink to represent it in a ink wash painting feeling plus clear outline of its shape. Therefore, he also used another practice in traditional Chinese arts, Gongbi, to represent the water at the bottom of this work and some plants. Other than black, white, gray, there are only two colors in the picture: use green to represent plants, and use orange-red to fill the color of the cloth on the person. By the strong contradiction of color, it is easy to catch people’s attention on the figure, which is on the right-bottom of this work. He is in red, relaxed clothes, sitting on the ground of a cave,
Liu encountered these families during her four years in the countryside. The painting depicts two men, perhaps a father and son, working together to pull a boat upstream. Although the boat is not in the picture, one can sense the weight from the postures, effort and strength of the men. Two men are contrasted by small images of the fragile, precious snuff bottles and the delicate dragonfly in the corner, both traditional Chinese symbols. The painting shows the 2 men in perfect rhythm with the appearance of sweat falling from their efforts. The positive focus is the 2 men in the picture with many negative white and dark colors. I believe the artist wanted you to feel the darkness and the sadness of the men as they did what that had to do to survive. You can almost feel the pain as they stress their bodies to the limits. I was truly intrigued by this piece of work, and would love to learn more about the artist’s
When the customary time for practice of meditation had passed, Godiva rose. It was now evening.¨ (Hesse 5-6). Siddhartha´s actions represent the last step, Right Contemplation, of the the Holy Eightfold Path. Meditation self-teaches the practitioners to clear their minds of
There is a lot of repetition of the vertical lines of the forest in the background of the painting, these vertical lines draw the eye up into the clouds and the sky. These repeated vertical lines contrast harshly with a horizontal line that divides the canvas almost exactly in half. The background, upper portion of the canvas, is quite static and flat, whereas the foreground and middle ground of the painting have quite a lot of depth. This static effect is made up for in the immaculate amount of d...
The two artworks I decided to discuss are A thousand peaks and myriad ravines by Wang Hui for the Chinese artwork and View of Kojima Bay by Ike Taiga as the Japanese artwork. Both these share a few similarities including the subject of the artwork being the landscape and naturalism. In A thousand peaks and myriad ravines by Wang Hui you can notice very clear detailing and lining from the top trees of the mountains to the very small fishers and scholars portrayed towards the bottom and center of the artwork. Primarily, this artwork emphasizes the detail. The portrait is mostly taken up by the mountains and that around it. The range of colors used in this hanging scroll consist of the grey scale and a golden bronze done with a very thin brush.
The Chauvet Cave Paintings: The Oldest Known Cave Art on Earth. Anthropology and History. April 15th 2011.
In terms of composition, this painting is well balanced especially in the background. First, because of the three figures form a triangle shape, and second, the background is divided into two big triangle shapes, because the left bottom side brighter than the upper right side. The big shape of tree also divides the background as triangle shapes; therefor the viewer can more easily recognize the boundary between the light and dark side. For example, the trunk of the right side makes a vertical line following the darkness, and a big branch divides the bright side and dark side as a diagonal demarcation line.
Cao Xueqin. Dream of the Red Chamber. Trans. Chi-Chen Wang. New York: Twayne, 1958. Print.
The print of art is a Hiroshige, Plum Garden at Kameido, 1857, woodblock print. The print shows a calm and peaceful color of a regular day. The background consists of wash colors like reddish-pink that fades into white, and transfers once more in a green hue of the greenish ground. The image is showing a view of a several plum trees, with the stems, the flower, and the people on the other side of the fence. This work has a light pink background symbolizing the sunset and warm colors of the spring. The middle ground in the light white color shows the piece where there are people on the other side of the fence and appears to be walking around the garden or going throughout their daily business. The middle ground also has a view of several plum trees, which all of them seem to be inside of the fence. The focal point of the piece is the main plum tree with its branches swinging from the left at a sharp angle and moving to the right.
The illustrations in Lon Po Po are done in a panel style. They are dark with some blurry images making some pictures hard to see enhancing the scary parts of the story. Lon Po Po is set in the Chinese countryside. It is the mother that makes the journey to grandmother’s house leaving behind her three young daughters. Since the mother will not return until the next day the girls are told to go inside at sunset and latch the door. The clever wolf saw that the girls were alone, and impersonated the grandmother Po Po to trick the children to let him inside. From the start the oldest child Shang was very suspicious, were the younger two Tao and Paotze were very excited to see Po Po and quickly opened the door. Shang continued to question Po Po with things in which she found very suspicious about, like her foot having a bush on it, or her hands having tho...
Not too far away from the town of Montignac, in the western Massif Central and Northern Pyrenees, the cave of Lascaux was discovered. Four teenage boys and their dog discovered it. The four boys, Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel and Simon Coenccus, were out on an expedition, but they found more than they bargained for that day. Their dog wandered away and they searched for him. In the process, the four boys discovered a cave that had been right below their feet for the past 17,000 years. They were not able to venture down into the 250-meter deep cave on the first day so they came back the next day prepared to enter the cave. When the boys first wiggled their way down into the cave they did not find anything. It was not until they reached an oval room that they first discovered paintings on the walls. These boys had uncovered paintings dating back to the Aurignacian (30,000-18,000 B.C.E.) (Laming, 34-41) and Magdalenian (15,000-10,000 B.C.E.) periods. It is believed that many of the paintings found in Lascaux were created between 16,000 and 14,000 B.C.E. The boys could no longer keep this cave a secret, so they told one of their teachers, Monsieur Laval. After accompanying the boys down to the cave, M. Laval started alerting historians to this new discovery. Within five days three historians were already on their way to visit the site. On September 17, 1940 three experts on Paleolithic art, Abbé Breuil, Dr. Cheynier and Abbé Bouyssonnie, crawled down into the cave; it was at this point the cave became authenticated.
... cave art that has been created and studied throughout France and Africa is a great tool to understanding what homo-sapiens have experienced and how they survived through the thousands of years, yet there is no definite answer to the reason behind these paintings. Whether it be for joy and creative reasons, or to document the types of animals and necessities of life that were a conscious need and tool of survival will remain unknown. The depiction of animals versus humans, and how shamanism can be a reason of how they could have been created is the best standing explanation to the cave art. The meaning behind the drawings may not be as factual as dating the art, the process and materials used, or the place the art has been found; but the meaning and what has driven our ancestors to this spur of creativity is the most important question that still remains unanswered.
In terms of colours, the white colour dominates in this painting. It signifies purity, freedom and change. In the past the rulers have dominated over the people but now the prevailing power is in the hands of the peasants. The large green leaves, echoing the horse`s mane in the painting symbolise the revival of the human mind and notify of the arriving change in people`s lives.
The painting is organized simply. The background of the painting is painted in an Impressionist style. The blurring of edges, however, starkly contrasts with the sharp and hard contours of the figure in the foreground. The female figure is very sharp and clear compared to the background. The background paint is thick compared to the thin lines used to paint the figures in the foreground. The thick paint adds to the reduction of detail for the background. The colors used to paint the foreground figures are vibrant, as opposed to the whitened colors of the Impressionist background. The painting is mostly comprised of cool colors but there is a range of dark and light colors. The light colors are predominantly in the background and the darker colors are in the foreground. The vivid color of the robe contrasts with the muted colors of the background, resulting in an emphasis of the robe color. This emphasis leads the viewer's gaze to the focal part of the painting: the figures in the foreground. The female and baby in the foreground take up most of the canvas. The background was not painted as the artist saw it, but rather the impression t...
Helga Carrion an elderly, wise monk, starts the meditation session from eleven to eleven forty-five in the morning. As a Buddhist, we must take off our shoes before entering our sanctuary and before worshipping Buddha. When entering this tiny worship house, it’s as the size of a living room, the beige walls gives off a mood of peace and tranquility. On the floor, there were several maroon pillows, in the middle of the pillow it’s very stiff to sit down and for one to position themselves to meditate. The most important relic that was presented in the house was a golden statue of Buddha, candles to help with our breathing techniques, and two pictures of the fourteenth Dalai Lama.
Dali, Salvador. “The Persistance of Memory.” A World of Ideas. 9th ed. Ed. Lee A.Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2013.Print