Alikeness In Shape And Alikeness In Spirit-speaking From Sculpture In West Han Dynasty

This paper focuses on the issue about nature and art. It is based on the comparison of sculptures between Han dynasty in China and old Greek period. The different interests of fine arts are illustrated in the western and eastern fine arts. This paper will summarize the different features into"alikeness in shape"and"alikeness in spirit."With the influence of imitation theory, old Greek sculpture seeks the concordant proportion and symmetry. The aesthetic pursuit is to reshow the nature in an ideal way. The old Greek sculpture seeks the alikeness in shape with the nature. Thus, the development of Greek fine arts is a process to break the stereotype of it. The imitation theory has vitalized the Greek arts and leaded it to the direction of closing to the nature.With the understanding of alikeness in spirit and Sculpture in West Han dynasty, the image of alikeness in spirit seeks austerity, shapeless and natural. The purpose of Chinese fine arts is"to set up a sculpture to illustrate ideas""to forget the shape but remember the spirit". It seeks the spirit beyond the sculpture.The focus of fine arts in West is the image's shape, which illustrates the natural or visualized realization. It reaches to the alikeness of the real objects by clairvoyance, proportion, measurement and dissection etc.The attitude of Chinese fine arts towards nature is not based on"my"view which visualizes or penetrates the object in a fixed position. Chinese fine arts seek"an image to visualize another image","meet the spirit without seeing". By alikeness in shape, Chinese fine arts summarize the asset of nature in a simple form. It does not pay much attention to the shape of visualization but the realization of the subject's spirit."Correction may not be real". The sculpture would ignore the shape of object, in another words, the shape of fine arts is not to testify the subject but to express the spirit.The imitation and spirit in Chinese fine arts is from the result of brain's recognition function. It is an illustration of experience and provided by the memory function. The"spirit"does not directly get from the"shape"of a real subject, but by comparison, to seek the common in difference to forget the shape of subject and itself and to fuse in nature. That is the conception of Chinese fine arts towards nature, which is different from the western fine arts to change based on the original subject.Because of different thinking ways towards nature and different idealization towards fine arts, the West and the East create different sculpture types. In the history of Chinese fine arts, different types are appeared in different periods. However, the pursuits and thinking ways in Chinese fine arts are same. That is to create alikeness in spirit. It is also a basic rule that Chinese fine arts followed. We could analyze the alikeness in spirit to hold the rule of shaping in Chinese fine arts."Alikeness in spirit"and"alikeness in shape"are from two different thinking ways. They are from eastern and western different sculpture systems. Because of different philosophies and levels of eastern and western fine arts, thus the view of Chinese fine arts should not be judged by the standard of the West. Meanwhile, the Chinese fine arts should not be changed in the western way.Chinese traditional fine arts have her unique rules. We should inherit the assets of it. The spirit of Chinese fine arts should be awakened. Based on that, we should try to innovate Chinese fine arts and not just engraft the western ones. We should reflect the present situation and better understand the individual nature of our nation's fine arts. Chinese artists should rationally absorb the excellent elements from the western fine arts and benefit from them to promote the development of Chinese fine arts and further influence the world.