A Comparative Study of Romantic Landscape between China and the West

Romance is a kind of precious emotional experience in life. People are always interested in romantic things because of its ubiquity and endlessness. In all ages, aesthetics of natural landscapes inspire people to pursue romantic experiences. In Chinese culture, the meaning of ""romantic"" was embodied in the spirit of freedom and reclusion in thought. Social stability and prosperity, economic development, the imperial examination system''s establishment, cultural prosperity were the main features in Tang and song dynasties. As a tower of strength in cultural heritage and artistic creation, traditional Chinese scholar-officials had constantly improved their social status, along with their spirit being open and positive. Zen Buddhism thought was the main philosophical ideological trend at that time. The attitude of it towards nature requested itself to stay together with nature. After the 18th century in Europe, the meaning of romance began to be used to describe the natural landscape, expressing people''s attachment and worship of nature at the time. During the Romanticism movement in the 18th and middle 19th century, romance was the main characteristics of art works. What''s more, the implications of romance was most abundant and positive. Based on the different implications of romance, the purpose of this study is to explore the elementary composition of romantic landscape in the east and the west, the landscape artistic conception and the aesthetic connotation, the people''s emotional experience and value pursuit that romance brought, at last compare their similarities and differences. In this research, based on Zube & Taylor''s (1982) experiential paradigm, the method of literature review was adopted to study the characteristics of art works, to analyze their background context, meaning and links with landscape. Then, compare the aesthetic implications of romantic landscape. At the same time, this method is also suitable for historic research. This paper chooses the Tang and Song dynasties, European romantic period as an entry point, both of which are the most glorious period. According to art critics'' comments, combined with social, economic and cultural background, I first pick out the most significant artists in this two periods. Then I choose the most representative works which conform to the implications of romance. In the Tang and Song dynasties, select Li Bai, Meng Hao-jan, Wang Wei, Cen Shen, Fan Kuan, and Guo Xi as the representative artists, and I discuss their 17 art works. In the European Romantic Era, I choose William Wordsworth, Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Hector Louis Berlioz, Theodore Gericault, Caspar David Friedrich, William Turner, John Constable as the representative artists, and I totally include their 15 art works. On the analysis and the comparison of art works, this research consult art critics'' comments, combine content and form. From four aspects, explore romantic landscape of China and the west. First, Skill——expression methods and content of works. Second, Landscape——landscape artistic conception and the aesthetic connotation. Third, Emotion——emotional experience and value pursuit. Fourth, Value——spirit and value pursuit. The research’s results showed that, on Emotion and Value, these all common human emotional level, romantic implications of China and the west demonstrate a high degree of consistency. Besides, romantic of longing for love only appearing in the western culture, chivalrous, adventure, nature worship, soul comfort and praise for nature of romance, these five different levels are common pursuit of mankind. On the shaping of landscape space, the former two meanings are mostly representational elements which are large-scale and changing ups and downs to create a hard sinister atmosphere. The latter three kinds are always shown in pastoral scenery which are quiet and familiar to daily life to create a serene, leisure, comfortable and cheerful atmosphere. At last, all show the pursuit of happiness and sweet life. The difference of romantic landscape between China and the west is reflected in Skill and Landscape. At last, all show the pursuit of happiness and sweet life. The difference of romantic landscape between China and the west is reflected in Skill and Landscape.