Guo Xi (1020–1085)
Born 1020 CE, died 1085 CE.
Guo Xi (Chinese: 郭熙; pinyin: Guō Xī; Wade–Giles: Kuo Hsi) (c. 1020 – c. 1090) was a Chinese landscape painter from Henan Province who lived during the Northern Song dynasty. One text entitled "The Lofty Message of Forest and Streams" (Linquan Gaozhi 林泉高致) is attributed to him. The work covers a variety of themes centered on the appropriate way of painting a landscape. He was a court professional, a literatus, well-educated painter who developed an incredibly detailed system of idiomatic brushstrokes which became important for later painters. One of his most famous works is Early Spring, dated 1072. The work demonstrates his innovative techniques for producing multiple perspectives which he called "the angle of totality." This type of visual representation is also called "Floating Perspective", a technique which displaces the static eye of the viewer and highlights the differences between Chinese and Western modes of spatial representation. The following is an excerpt from his treatise, "mountains and waters": The clouds and the vapours of real landscapes are not the same at the four seasons.
Text from the Wikipedia article Guo_Xi, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.