IMAGE AND SYMBOL OF A FLOWERING WOOD IN ART OF CHINA AND EUROPE

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to reveal the figurative and symbolic parallels of the image of a flowering tree in the art of China and Europe. When studying the topic chosen by us, it was especially important to use a comparative method, which allows comparing works of art from Europe and China based on related subjects from different time periods and identifying the general and the particular.  The artistic-stylistic and iconological method is actively used.  Iconology along with the iconography allows to perceive the symbolic content of the work.  It has been established that the image and  symbol  of  a  flowering  tree  is  one  of  the
most important in the art of China and Europe, since it expresses the idea of the eternal revival of  nature  and  the  person  associated  with  it. Unlike the art of Europe, where people are in the center  of  attention,  the  genre  of  “Flowers  and Birds” and the landscape “Mountains – Waters” dominate  in  China.  European  artists  of  the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries came closest to the art of the Far East.   Over  time,  nature  in  the  art  of  Europe  became an independent genre, the image of a flowering tree comes to the fore in relation to the image of  a  man.  In  times  of  crisis  in  nature  sought harmony.  In  the  striving  of  European  artists  to get  away  from  direct,  realistic  reproduction  of the  landscape  and  create  a  mediated, conditional  symbolic  landscape,  the  aspiration
of the masters of the new directions of the XIX – XX  centuries  to  the  poetics  of  beauty,  to  the expressiveness of line and color influences. The culture of the Far East helped to go beyond the
anthropomorphic  mythology  of  the Mediterranean  culture  of  Europe;  enrich figurative and symbolic content; artistic facilities;
artistic  and  stylistic  opportunities;  change  and expand the genre boundaries of art. Scientific novelty of the publication lies in the fact that it was the first time when it compared the image and symbol of a flowering tree in the art of China and Europe.