Among the various shapes, there are always some shapes that appear naturally and happily in front of people. People seem to have an innate perception. This cheerful shape is what we call beauty. What shape can trigger our perception of beauty? We tried to find a rule, but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Everything in the world has different shapes, and people's perception of beauty is also different. This inner perception is inherently indescribable and can never be as clear as mathematics. Although people have summed up various laws of formal beauty, in actual experience, even if we don't know the so-called laws, it doesn't affect us to appreciate a beautiful woman and like a beautiful place at all. To love all beautiful things, if you want to find some connection between form and beauty and express this connection appropriately, you will undoubtedly find yourself a huge trouble.
Among all things in nature, many shapes are naturally irregular, and their shapes are determined by the natural environment. For example, a tree grows on the earth, on a cliff, in the south or in the north, except that its shape characteristics are determined by genes. The environment has a great influence on their morphology, and they will show completely different morphological characteristics. However, no matter how different its morphological changes are, it cannot escape the natural * *. The gravity of the earth determines that all natural shapes will be stable, whether it is trees or mountains, all species on this planet must be like this. The most intuitive expression or the most popular expression of this stability is balance.
If we try to divide shapes into types, I think there can be roughly three types, one is horizontal and the other is vertical, and the shapes that evolve from these two types to the middle are often in the middle.
The most essential feature of the transverse shape is that it extends to the left and right, showing a tiled situation. Because it extends to the left and right, it gains greater stability in visual experience, gives people more sense of stability and security, and can lead to all aesthetic cognition that tends to be static: tranquility, peace, tranquility, tranquility, and so on. In addition, the horizontal shape is full of ductility, which stretches people's vision infinitely to the left and right.
In China's paintings and calligraphy, there is a form that takes this extensibility to the extreme. It is a long scroll, and the length of the long scroll is infinite. Take the most famous long scroll in ancient China as an example: The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is 24.8 cm long and 528.7 cm wide; "Han Xizhai Night Banquet" is 28.7 cm long and 335.5 cm wide; National map of thousands of miles, vertical 5 1.5cm and horizontal1191.5cm; Huang Tingjian's Calligraphy Biography of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru is 32.5cm long and 1822cm wide.
This form of China's painting and calligraphy is unique in the world. When the aspect ratio is consciously broken, there is a sudden pleasure after breaking free. Without the fetters of height, its length can be extended at will, infinitely, and never tire of it. It is this extensibility that hides the sense of space in calligraphy and painting works deeper and deeper, and is full of mystery. With the long scroll, while the mood of curiosity, expectation, accident and relaxation changes, it perfectly interprets the timeliness of painting to the maximum extent, and creates the intersection of time among viewers, authors and works. The integration of the three is the original intention of creating this special form.
With the help of this feature, the ancients in China solved the problem of depicting the flowing time in static painting with only one long scroll, which can be described as effortless and ingenious. In the form of painting, the ancients had extraordinary wisdom, and created the richest painting forms in the world, such as banners, vertical axes, long scrolls, album pages, nave, fan faces and bucket squares. , and regardless of the content, only on the form, enough to be the best in the world.
Vertical balance is probably the closest to human perception of balance. People are lying in a horizontal position. When we lie down, all kinds of tension in the body will probably go into a relaxed state. This state should start from balancing the organs and then spread to every muscle in the whole body. The muscles of the body no longer need to be in a state of hard tension to maintain balance. The body is released from tension, and the limbs and body tend to be infinitely quiet and peaceful, followed by spiritual relaxation and gentle breathing. Therefore, lying down is the best rest and relaxation.
When people stand, the balance system will start immediately. Therefore, the vertical posture is a sense of tension and movement, and it is also a manifestation of vitality and vitality. Vertical extension is an upward and downward extension. When we look down at the ground, the downward extension ends immediately. When we look up at the sky again, we suddenly feel helpless, and there is an unspeakable sense of oppression that heaven never shuts one door but another, and the earth never shuts one door but another.
Compared with the left and right, this up-and-down extension greatly inhibits its spaciousness, so the vertical range is definitely extremely limited. We have never seen the existence of vertical calligraphy and painting with the same aspect ratio as long scrolls. We can imagine what it would be like to have such a calligraphy and painting in front of us, and how nervous and uneasy it would be to observe a calligraphy and painting 10 meter long from top to bottom.
The gravity of the earth not only restricts our bodies, but also greatly affects our observation habits and aesthetic stereotypes. Therefore, the vertical space is extremely limited, and every upward extension is an escape, a reverse growth and a struggle. Therefore, if you are vertical, you will naturally have a sense of loftiness and give birth to a feeling of helping upward psychologically.
As for the third shape, it is between vertical and horizontal, such as the sitting posture of people. Lying and standing for a long time, standing and sitting for a long time, is the way of nature. For this shape, there is no need to find personality in two dimensions, but its characteristics are shown in the extreme proximity of two dimensions, such as square and circle. Plumpness, stability, harmony and founder are their best expressions.
People's feelings about the balance form are often the same as the experience of balance in life, which constitutes the bottom of human aesthetic psychology.
People's sense of balance depends on precise organs: vision, proprioception, inner ear vestibule and cerebellum. Their cooperation has perfected human perception of balance. Vision provides a sense of spatial position. When we close our eyes or have poor eyesight, our sense of balance becomes worse. Standing on one leg with eyes closed is much less than standing on one leg with eyes open. Vision plays an important role in the sense of balance.
The inner ear contains cochlea, semicircular canal and vestibule system, among which semicircular canal and vestibule are the balance systems of human body, and it can feel the "sense of acceleration", so even if we close our eyes and sit on the plane or elevator that takes off, we can still feel ourselves moving, although we can't see the change of external position; The cerebellum receives information from various organs, integrates these information, coordinates body movements, maintains balance, and regulates eye movements to maintain clear vision.
Under the integrated operation of these balance organs, we have formed a sense of balance and movement. When we perceive shapes, this sense of balance accumulated by human beings for thousands of years naturally migrates, and the migration of professionally trained painters and painters is more rapid and intense.
When people perceive the form of space with vision, they naturally mobilize the experience from balance, and the standard to measure this experience is the transfer of sense of balance, which constitutes the aesthetic basis of human beings for balance. The core of balance is to balance first. Only balance can make people feel safe and meet the needs of human survival for security. Beauty must be based on this, and Maslow regards it as one of the basic needs of human survival.
For shape, balance may be a more accurate description. The shape of balance conforms to the law of the existence of all things in the world. Because of balance, it exists, because of balance, it is beautiful.