Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/42

RV 22 of Wu Tao-tsz. Speaking broadly, the painters of his epoch—the Tang Dynasty (618-907 )—are believed to be the most powerful and original their country has produced, but it is difficult to determine how much that verdict owes to Oriental reverence for the antique. If the works of Wu Tao-tsz, Wong Wei (Japanese O-i), and Han Kan (Japanese Kan-Kan) served as splendid models to the first Japanese painters of note,—Kose no Kanaoka and his immediate successors,—the pictures of the Sung (960-1205 ) masters were even more esteemed and copied by subsequent Japanese artists, and continuously in later eras the influence of the various Chinese schools made itself felt in the neighbouring empire. Turning to the general characteristics of the art, the first point to be noted is that strength, directness, decision, and delicacy of stroke ranked above all other qualities. Outlines were frequently traced, the fact that they do not exist in nature being deliberately ignored. Doubtless for the same reason, accuracy of drawing was often sacrificed to conventionalised beauties of curve and contour, and nature's effects were translated into the language of decorative manner- isms. Linear perspective was either absent altogether or present in a form that violated European canons. Cast shadows did not appear. Colours were used very sparingly in the earlier eras, the best works being in black and white, pure monochrome, or pale tints relieved by an occasional touch of brighter hue. No subject was too trivial for representation, but if pictures were often produced which, so far as concerns the objects depicted, would rank only as