Guo Xi

Guo Xi ( 1020 – c. 1090) fue un pintor de paisajes chino de la provincia de Henan que vivió durante la dinastía Song del Norte. Un texto titulado "The Lofty Message of Forest and Streams" (Linquan Gaozhi 林泉高致) se le atribuye. La obra abarca una variedad de temas centrados en la manera apropiada de pintar un paisaje. Fue un profesional de la corte, un literatus, un pintor bien educado que desarrolló un sistema increíblemente detallado de pinceladas idiomáticas que se volvieron importantes para pintores posteriores. Una de sus obras más famosas es Early Spring, fechada en 1072. La obra demuestra sus técnicas innovadoras para producir múltiples perspectivas que él llamó "the angle of totality". Este tipo de representación visual también se llama "Floating Perspective", una técnica que desplaza el ojo estático del espectador y resalta las diferencias entre los modos chino y occidental de representación espacial. The following is an excerpt from his treatise, "mountains and waters": The clouds and the vapours of real landscapes are not the same at the four seasons. In spring they are light and diffused, in summer rich and dense, in autumn scattered and thin, in winter dark and solitary. When such effects can be seen in pictures, the clouds and vapours have an air of life. The mist around the mountains is not the same at the four seasons. The mountains in spring are light and seductive as if smiling: the mountains in summer have a blue-green colour which seems to be spread over them; the mountains in autumn are bright and tidy as if freshly painted; the mountains in winter are sad and tranquil as if sleeping. Guo Xi was often referred to as a "Northern Song master" when it came to painting. His work inspired many later artists and he even had landscapes dedicated to him. His lesser-known "Deep Valley" scroll painting depicts a serene mountain valley covered with snow and several trees struggling to survive on precipitous cliffs. The ink washes and amorphous brush strokes are employed to model surfaces that suggest the veiling effects of the atmosphere. One of Guo Xi’s techniques was to layer ink washes to build up forms and his "Deep Valley" is a masterpiece of the use of light ink and magnificent composition. His son later described how Guo Xi approached his work: "On days when he was going to paint, he would seat himself at a clean table, by a bright window, burning incense to right and left."