Why is there such a big gap between Eastern and Western painting styles?

There are several main opinions.

1; The different painting media between China and the West have caused differences in the directions of Chinese and Western paintings.

The ancestors of Chinese and Western paintings are all rock paintings. In this sense, there is no difference in medium.

In an era when the main function of paintings was tombs, the difference between Chinese and Western paintings was not as great as imagined.

The widening gap between Chinese and Western painting is mainly due to the separation of painting into a relatively independent art.

Based on this, some people have suggested that it was the painting medium at that time that caused Chinese and Western paintings to take different paths.

Because at that time, the main painting tools in the East were brushes, while the painting tools in the West were brushes similar to small brushes.

The brush is good for line work and rendering, while the small brush is good for flat application of blocks of color and mixing of colors.

This statement has some basis, but it cannot explain some key issues.

For example, in the pre-painting period (that is, when painting has not been separated into an independent art), Chinese and Western paintings were already different. If later murals can be explained by the above method, then the original rock paintings in China and the West have shown different appearances, which means

It's hard to explain in this way.

2. Determined by the different ways of thinking between the East and the West.

This statement is basically the mainstream view.

This view holds that Eastern thinking tends to be general, intuitive, and perceptual; while Western thinking tends to be inductive, analytical, and rational.

In art, it is manifested as follows: Eastern painting pursues the use of pictures to convey personal aesthetic tendencies, taste pursuits, and realm interests; while Western painting tends to use pictures to analyze the objective world (note: here, "analyze the objective world" and "

There is a strict distinction between "depicting the objective world". To put it simply, the former includes the latter, and the latter is just an aspect of the former.)

This view is relatively straightforward, but is considered by some to lack fundamental persuasion.

Because those who hold this view do not try to further explain why there is such a difference between Eastern and Western ways of thinking.

3. Some people try to use the difference in natural environment to explain this problem.

Generally speaking, it is said that the eastern natural environment is influenced by continental images, focusing on depicting the lines of continental mountains and rivers; while the western natural environment is mainly marine, focusing on depicting the light and color changes of the ocean; this belongs to the minority, but some opinions can also be referred to here

Not much to say.

In short, this is a complex and comprehensive effect that cannot be explained by just one point of view.