Wang Wei ( 王维) is a famous multi-talented artist in Tang Dynasty. Another famous artist in the later Song Dynasty Su-shi (苏轼) 's comment on Wang Wei's poems and paintings " in reading Wang's poems one sees pictures, upon seeing Wang's pictures one senses poetry." (“味摩诘之诗，诗中有画，观摩诘之画，画中有诗” ) is very famous as well - almost all writings about Wang Wei start with this Shu-shi's comment. Because of the frequent encounters of this comment people tend to think that this is true like the effect of frequent encounters of Coca-Cola and McDonald's CMs. We must check whether this is true or not. One of the best ways is to check with the Wang Wei's original works - poems and paintings. "in reading Wang's poems one sees pictures" is highly likely true and most poem readers may admit this. How about his paintings? Unfortunately his original paintings reportedly do not exist. But fortunately his original writings on Chinese Landscape paintings exist - 《山水论》 or Theory on Landscape Paintings and 《山水决》 or Key to successful Landscape Paintings. But unfortunately again I cannot find the English versions of these.
Generally his writings on Chinese Landscape paintings are mostly about techniques, probably new techniques at his time so he called them Key (or Secret) to successful Landscape Paintings.
Major points are as follows (limited as my understanding of the Chinese original is limited):
1) Proportion of the sizes of the objects or Scaling
To reflect the actual size differences
For instance
Mountains - several hundred meters
Trees - several ten meters
Horses - several meters
Human beings - 1-2 meters
2) Size difference at different distances - a kind of perspective, things far away seem small and things near seem large.
For instance
Trees far away, leaves cannot be seen.
Mountains far away, rocks and stones cannot be seen.
Rivers far away, waves cannot be seen.
Trees far away are low while tress near are high.
3) 3D expression
For instance
Rocks must show the 3 faces.
4) Atmospheric features
a) Weather features
Different weathers show different features. Things look different in windy and raining weathers.
b) Morning and evening features
Different times in a day show different features.
c) Seasonal features
Scenes in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter show each season's typical features.
For instance
Spring - fog, Winter - snow
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Theory on Landscape Paintings - Original Chinese 《山水论》
Key (or Secret) to successful Landscape Paintings - Original Chinese 《山水决》
Refer to: http://baike.baidu.com/view/1582453.htm
AAG
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