Written by: Nathalie Trouveroy

Table of contents:

• Summary

• Glossary

• Textbook Questions and Answers

Summary:

• The writer contrasts Chinese art with European art by using two stories.

• The Tang Emperor Xuanzong commissioned the painter Wu Daozi to decorate a palace wall.

• When it was done the Emperor admired the scene.

• The painter drew the Emperor's attention to a cave and when he clapped his hands the entrance of the cave opened.

• The painter entered but before Emperor could move the entrance closed and the painting vanished, along with the artist.

• In another story, a painter wouldn't draw the eye of a dragon he had painted for fear it would fly out of the painting.

• The writer then cites a story representative of Western painting in which a master blacksmith Quinten Metsys fell in love with a painter's daughter.

• To be accepted as a son-in-law Quinten painted a fly on the painter's latest panel.

• When the painter tried to swat it away he realised the truth-Quinten was taken on as an apprentice and married his beloved.

• These stories reveal what each form tries to achieve.

• The Europeans want a perfect illusionstic likeness while in Asia it is the essence of inner life and spirit.

• In the Chinese story only the artist knows the way within and he reaches his goal beyond material appearance.

• Unlike a Western figurative painting a classical Chinese landscape does not reproduce an actual view and one can enter it from any point and travel in it.

• It requires the active participation of the viewer both physically and mentally.

• Man becomes a conduit of communication or 'the eye of the landscape'.

Glossary:

1. anecdote: From the text, the meaning of anecdote can be inferred as a short account of a particular incident or event, especially of an interesting or exciting nature.

2. illusionistic likeness: It refers to an adjective of the technique of using pictorial methods in order to deceive the eye. The reference is to an illusion created by the semblance of something.

3. delicate realism: It refers to the alluring quality of the art which makes it seem real. It is an interest in or concern for the actual or real as opposed to abstract.

4. conceptual space: It refers to relation with the abstract than the factual representation. This is the incalculable dimension of the understanding of concepts.

5. figurative painting: A figurative painting refers to the metaphoric representation of a piece of art, through the eyes of the creator's imagination.

6. Sneak into: enter secretly

7. Be hailed: be honoured/acclaimed

8. Dizzy heights : very high level of success

Some special References:

1. Wu Daozi (680-C. 760)-a Chinese artist of

Tang Dynasty

2. Confucious (551-478 BC) - a Chinese philosopher and teacher of ethics.

3. Zhuangzi (369-286 BC) - a Chinese philosopher, who greatly influenced Chinese religion through the book of Taoist philosophy that bears his name.

4. Flanders - a medieval country in northern Europe that included regions now parts of northern France and Belgium and south-western Netherlands.

5. Antwerp - a city of northern Belgium.

6. Shanshui - 'mountain-water- refers to a style of traditional Chinese painting that involves or depicts scenery or natural landscapes, using a brush and ink rather than more conventional paints

7. Daoism - Variant of Taoism - religion adhering to the teaching of Lao-tzu

8. Jean Du Buffet (1901-1985) - a French painter and sculptor.

9. Art Brut - The term 'Outsider art' was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut' (French-'raw art' or 'rough art').

10. UNESCO- United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation.

11. Nek Chand Saini (15 December, 1924-12 June, 2015) : a self-taught Indian artist, known for building the Rock Garden of Chandigarh, an eighteen acre sculpture garden in the city of Chandigarh, India.

Textbook Questions and Answers:

1) (1) Contrast the Chinese view of art with the European view with examples.

Ans.

• The Chinese paintings are based on imaginative, inner or spiritual approach whereas the European paintings reproduce an actual view, of an external or real object.

• The paintings of Wu Daozi and later painters of Europe illustrate the difference.

(2) Explain the concept of shanshui.

Ans.

• Shanshui, meaning 'mountain-water', refers to a style of Chinese painting that involves natural landscapes, the landscape which is an inner one, a spiritual and conceptual space.

• It represents the two complementary poles ('vin' and young) reflecting the Daoist view of the universe

2).(1) What do you understand by the terms 'outsider art' and 'art brut' or 'raw art'?

Ans.

• 'Outsiders art refers to those art who have no right to be artists as they have recieved no formal training yet show talent and artistic insight.

• Art brut' or 'raw art are the works of art in their raw state as regards cultural and artistic influences.

(2) Who was the 'untutored genius who created a paradise' and what is the nature of his contribution to art?

Ans :

• The 'untutored genius' who created a ‘paradise’ was Nek Chand, an 80 year old creator director who made the world famous rock garden at Chandigarh.

• His was an 'outsider art' in which he sculpted with stone and recycled materials.

• He used anything and everything from a tin to a sink to a broken down car to form an artistic piece.

• One of his famous creations are 'Women by the waterfall’

3)'The Emperor may rule over the territory he has conquered, but only the artist knows the way within.'

Ans.

• This sentence explains the fact that even though an Emperor might rule an entire kingdom and have power over his conquered territory.

• Only an artist would be able to go beyond any material appearance.

• He knows both the path and the method of the mysterious work of the universe.

• True meaning of his work can be seen only by means known to him, irrespective of how powerful an emperor is.

4) The landscape is an inner one, a spiritual and conceptual space'

Ans.

• This phrase explains The Chinese art from where a Chinese painter wants you to enter his mind rather than borrow his eyes.

• This is a physical as well as a mental participation.

• It is a landscape created by the artist to travel up and down and back again, through the viewer's eyes.

• The landscape is not 'real' and can be reached from any point.

5) What happened to Wu Daozi?

Ans.

• Wu Daozi clapped his hands and the entrance to the cave opened.

• He entered into the cave and the entrance closed behind him.

• Then he never came back.

6) What is the content of the books by Confucius and Zuangzi? What do they reveal?

Ans.

• The books written by Confucius and Zuangzi are full of anecdotes.

• They play important part in China's classical education.

• They deeply reveal the spirit in which art was considered.

7) Who was Quinten Metsys? Why was he not allowed to marry the girl he loved?

Ans.

• Quinten Metsys was a master blacksmith.

• He fell in love with a painter's daughter. The girl's father would not accept a son-in-law in such a profession.

• So he was not allowed to marry the girl he loved.

8) Write Wu Daozi's story.

Ans.

• Wu Daozi was a Chinese painter who lived in the eighth century.

• Tang Emperor Xuanzong employed him to decorate Emperor was very happy with the painting.

• It had a forests, high mountains, waterfalls, clouds floating palace wall. The in the sky, men on hilly paths and birds in flight.

• Once the painter told the Emperor that in that cave, at the foot of the mountain, there lived a spirit.

• The painter clapped his hands and the entrance to the cave opened.

• Inside the cave was splendid beyond any verbal expression.

• Then the painter entered the cave, but the entrance closed behind him.

• Before the astonished Emperor could move or utter a word, the painting had vanished from the wall.

• Neither a trace of Wu Daozi's brush nor the artist was seen again in this world.

9) Write the story of Quinten Metsys.

Ans.

• A master blacksmith named Quinten Metsys lived in Antwerp in the fifteenth century.

• He fell in love with a painter's daughter. The father would not accept a son-in-law in the profession of blacksmith, so he was not ready to get his daughter married with him.

• Once Quinten secretly entered the painter's studio and painted a fly on his latest panel.

• The fly looked so real that the father tried to swat it away. With this influence, he immediately admitted Quinten as an apprentice into his studio.

• Later he married the painter's daughter and went on to become one of the famous painters of his age.

POEM 3: THE VOICE OF THE RAIN

Written by: Walt Whitman

Table of contents:

• Summary

• Glossary

• Textbook Questions and answers

Summary:

• 'The Voice of the Rain' is a celebrates rain and its natural-cycle for the benefit of earth and the life it supports.

• The poem begins with the poet asking for the identity of the soft-falling rain shower.

• Much to the surprise of the poet, the rain replies to his question. And, the poet translates this 'voice' of the rain for his readers.

• The rain identifies itself as the 'Poem of Earth.

• It says that it rises from the land and the deep sea, in the form of the intangible water vapours, and goes up to the immeasurable sky.

• It then takes the form of clouds with various shapes.

• Although it changes in its form and shape, its core existence remains the same.

• It descends or falls on the surface of the earth to eliminate droughts, wash away the tiny particles and settle down the dust-layers.

• It reinvigorates the dry lands and gives life to the seeds that otherwise, would have remained dormant and unborn.

• Thus, the rain drops rise in the form of vapours only to come back to its origin in the form of rain.

• During this cycle, it purifles and beautifies (by nourishing the unborn seeds the planet.

• The last two lines of the poem are the poet's reflection upon the answer given by the rain.

• The poet observes that the life of rain is similar to that of a song.

• A song originates from the heart of the poet, travels to reach others and after fulfilling its purpose (whether acknowledged or not).

• It returns to the poet with all due love. Similarly the rain rises from the land and oceans, wanders. fulfils its purpose of nourishing life and purifying the planet, and then returns to its birth-place.

Glossary:

1. thou: you

2. Soft falling: dropping softly

3. Shower: rainfall

4. Eternal: that cannot be touched

5. Bottomless: very deep

6. Vaguely: not completely formed or developed

7. Whence: from where

8. Descend: to go down

9. Lave: (here) wash,bathe

10. Droughts: period of dryness

11. Latent: hidden

Textbook Questions and Answers:

(1) There are two voices in the poem. Who do they belong to? Which lines indicate this?

Answer:

• The poem begins in conversational tone.

• The two voices in the poem are the voice of the poet and the voice of the rain.

• The lines that indicate the voice of the poet and the rain are, "And who art thou? Said I to the soft-falling shower," and the lines that indicate the voice of the rain are, "I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain".

(2) What does the phrase 'strange to tell' mean?

Ans.

• The phrase 'strange to tell' means that it is quite strange for the poet to believe and express in words that the soft-falling rain replied to his question.

• At the beginning of the poem, the poet inquires the rain about its identity, to which the rain replies that it is the 'Poem of Earth'.

(3) There is a parallel drawn between rain and music. Which words indicate this? Explain the similarity between the two.

Ans.

• The lines, "I am the Poem of Earth", said by the voice of the rain, reflects a connection between rain and poetry.

• This connection becomes more conspicuous in the final two lines,

• “(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfillment, wandering Reck'd or Unreck'd, duly with love returns)”.

• In these lines, the poet draws similarities between rain and music observing that the life cycle of rain and song are alike.

• The song issues from the heart of the poet and travels to reach others.

• It wanders and, whether heard and enjoyed or not, eventually returns to its creator with all due love.

• Similarly, rain originates from the earth, and after fulfiling its role of spreading beauty and purity, returns to its origin.

• Both are perpetual in nature. Moreover, the sound of the soft-falling rain is in itself a kind of music.

4) How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in the poem? Compare it with what you have learnt in science.

Ans.

• In the poem, the water rises from the land and the bottomless sea' to reach the sky.

• There, it transforms itself into vague formation of clouds, different in their structure than the water from which they originate.

• After wandering, these clouds descend to the earth in the form of rain to provide relief to the drought-ridden areas and infuse life into the unborn and latent seeds.

• The rain renders the earth with beauty and purity.

• In science, we learn the cyclical process of rain in terms like evaporation, condensation, precipitation, flowing rivers, ground water and Ocean water etc., while in the poem the same process becomes interesting and unusual.

• The rain speaks itself to describe its course.

• The poem puts forward how rain never loses its core essence even after changing into various forms.

(5) Why are the last two lines put within brackets?

Ans.

• The last two lines of the poem have been put within brackets as they do not form the part of the conversation between the poet and the rain.

• The lines in the bracket indicate the reflections, observations and thoughts of the poet.

• He makes observations about the life-course of a song and draws similarities between the life-cycle of a song and rain.