The Beauty Of Fusion

From late Ming dynasty to early Qing dynasty of China, social ideology had changed greatly alongside the replacement of regimes: commodity economy embraced gradual development, capitalism emerged, foreign cultures constantly landed... These phenomena indicated a great change was coming. Inevitably, culture was part of this great change, western art is not only a cultural symbol, but also a wave of a cultural tide. Its arrival posed huge impact on traditional Chinese painting, fermenting a reform in art field. In Chinese landscape painting, the beginning of this reform can be traced back to a missionary, Wu Li.This paper first introduces the Wu li’s life, leading to the topic of this article,the beauty of fusion, by the changes of the Wu’s identities. Different identities left different traces on Wu, which consequently formed his unique painting style. Then it explains the controversy of whether Wu’s works were influenced by western painting or not by enumerating nearly one hundred years argument between the Chinese and foreign scholars on this issue, which shows the value of the research. Through comparative analysis of two representative works of Wu, the ailing hengshan shine map "volume and the lake day spring scenery figure, this paper points out two differences compared with the traditional landscape painting, which can be classified in to to aspects. The first one is light and shadow, the second one is colour. In terms of light and shadow, the comparison between the ailing hengshan shine map " volume and the contemporary painter Wang Hui’s works, and the works of early European Renaissance paintings, explains why the Wu’s light and shadow techique was influenced by the western painting. Subsequently, in order to seek for the source of Wu Li’s painting style by exploring Wu Li’s life, this paper concentrates on Macau,where Wu Li was deeply influenced. Macau is a city under the influence of two superstructure, both the feudalism and conservatism of Chinese traditional society,and the openness left by western maritime countries such as Portugal,which is precise reflection of Wu’s painting style: he didn’t disengage from the rules of the Chinese landscape painting, but he added some elements of western painting. Macau is open, religion can come in, European painting, as a missionary tool, can also come in. Wu Li had the opportunity to get access to the western painting, inevitably he was influenced by western painting unconsciously.In colour respect, this paper compares the differences between lake day spring scenery figure, shallow purple landscape, green landscape and ink landscape, so asto show Wu Li’s innovation in his painting. The source of Wu’s innovation was found by the research the early European landscape watercolor painting and the "spring scenery lake day figure" in common, plus wu special life experiencesIn the end this paper analyzes the three different directions of the development of Chinese landscape painting, whatever techniques, coloring, those are just forms and are not worthy of excessive pursuit. The real good works should not only express painters’ feelings but also affect the audience. In the spirit of Wu Li’s innovation, this paper briefly introduced contemporary Chinese art innovation views.