Eye Picturesque

The Rev. William Gilpin was an aesthetic and artist. Many researchers who took the aspect of the picturesque beauty of his theory of art as their subject to comment, usually came to a conclusion that it is the combination of beauty and sublimity, or as their media. However, I will analysis the formation of his the picturesque theory from another aspect, in which I shall make an emphasis on the form of painting. His theory, in his own words, can be summarized as the picturesque eye, for which contains two critical characters both of the picturesque composition and the visual effect of roughness and ruggedness. So his form of thinking emphasizing the sensation while rejecting the other, which became the subject to Uvedale Price’s criticism.There are mainly four parts in the treatise. In the Preface to it, I shall mainly discuss both the part of speech and the meanings of the word-picturesque, as they haven’t been understood at home and abroad yet, and it is the premise based on which readers to comprehend the essay.Chapter two is the most important part of the essay. I, from the aspect of the forms of painting, try to analyze the process of the formation of his theory. The process from the perception of the framework to the inside frame, which is companied by the arising of the concept of scenery. The rising of the framework symbolized the formation of landscape.William Gilpin looked at land through his Claude Glass which rendered him perceiving the existence of the scenery. He distinguished the inside and outside world under the impression of Alberti’s Window Theory. Having been influenced by Alberti’s Window Theory and the special perception of the Northman’s,which made his ability to perceive the two space, he changed the composition of regular window frame into an irregular one which is characterized by complexity and variety. At last, his trichotomy and the use of the Claude Glass may affect his method of composition, that is, the fore-ground, the middle ground and the background in a picture.