In the East, Gu Kaizhi, the founder of painting, has defined the tone of "God" as "shape". Although the long history of China art still breeds realistic art such as Terracotta Warriors and Horses, Luohan in Yixian County, Su Shi's assertion that "painting is like a neighbor" undoubtedly echoes in the ears of later artists. After the rise of the Song Dynasty, China's art gradually drifted away on the road of freehand brushwork.
The development trend of western art is roughly opposite to that of China. As a peak of Greek philosophy, Plato attributed the origin of all things to "ideas", and all external "forms" are ethereal. Only when "ideas" remain unchanged, ideas are eternal.
On the basis of this philosophical thought, Plato's "bed theory" is deeply rooted in people's hearts. Carpenters build beds according to the "idea" of beds, and painters paint according to the "form" created by carpenters. Although this thesis can easily push art to the position of "imitation" and "ethereal", it undoubtedly lays a realistic tone for art to imitate reality. After the consensus of artistic realism was formed, the Romans further developed realism. Roman sculpture is the most realistic, even at the expense of "face modeling" for the authenticity of the sculpture. Therefore, Roman sculpture has formed an artistic feature known for its distinctive personality.
Influenced by the realistic atmosphere, the Roman colony Fayoum gave birth to a very realistic portrait of Fayoum. It is hard to imagine that the realistic Romans actually influenced the Egyptians who advocated Gombrich's so-called "expressing what he knows". Chen Danqing said with emotion: "Its sparkling eyes resemble real people, which is called the realistic peak of ancient art."
After the establishment of realistic artistic trend of thought in Greece and Rome, Leonardo da Vinci's theory of "imitating nature", Caravaggio's naturalism, Constantinople's longing for "the words of innocence", barbizon's sincere pursuit of outdoor real perception, Courbet's realism and the strict record of the scientific laws of the impressionist party's instantaneous light and shadow are undoubtedly further developments of realism.
However, it is worth noting that the philosophy of the Greek period, such as Stoicism's admiration for number, Plato's emphasis on ideas and Aristotle's metaphysics, planted another seed for art, that is, idealized artistic expression. Therefore, this expressive and conceptual tendency of artistic development can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome in essence. Both Danto and Hegel believe that the development of art will continue to move towards pure concepts and philosophy, and art will die with its own philosophy.
However, it should be noted that although the concept of modern art is increasing day by day, art itself is not philosophical. Art is nothing more than "suddenly looking back, that person is in the dim light" or "looking at the mountain or the mountain, looking at the water or the water". Art is to think about the relationship between the world and people in an artistic way, and to think about the meaning of life as a person. This kind of thinking is in the same strain as the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers, and it is the art after "clothing"