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 == Non-Western Classical Art == 

 Random notes on other Classical art traditions.  The 'Art' article is labled as 'culturally-biased', so perhaps these little ideas could be useful. 

 ===China=== 

 In Chinese Classical painting, what is to be captured by the artist is 'truth of natural forms' or 'spiritual essence', which is parallel to the Western concept of 'ideals' or 'forms'. 

 Poetry, calligraphy and painting are the ‘three perfections’ of the scholar-artist.  Painting and calligraphy are strongly linked skills. 

 Three ranks of painting: spiritual, marvelous, and competent. 

 ""Form-likeness"",  or conformity to visual reality, increases an image's spiritual likeness. 

 Chinese Classical arts affect change in society not through technology or novelty, but by resurrecting ancient truths. 

 Ancient arts should not become outmoded, while modern arts should not become decadent. 

 Classical Chinese arts are not purely secular. 

 A story:  A Chinese emperor commissioned a famous artists to paint him a picture of a fish.  The artist delayed giving the emperor his painting; he always said that it wasn't ready yet.  After a year, the impatient Emperor went to the artist, demanding his painting.  The artist sat on the floor with a paintbrush and paper, and with one motion of his hand, painted a masterpiece fish.  The Emperor, angry, demanded why the artist delayed giving him his painting.  The artist, silently, opened a closet door, and thousands of paintings of fish fell to the floor. 

 Types of landscapes:  places to see, places to play in, places to live in, and heavenly places. 

 ===Islam=== 

 Islamic art is nonrepresentational; only God is beautiful, and this beauty is shown abstractly using signs.  Beauty is in the form, not the representation. 

 In Islamic art in general, and architecture in particular, beauty and utility are both inseparable.  Ugliness is uselessness. 

 Art should reflect the cosmic poetry, the logos of God in His creation of the world. 

 ===India=== 

 Indian art is rich in symbolism and allegory.  Mystical and mythic associations enhance the beauty of an artwork. 

 Indian art needs to be seen in a spiritual light, emotions and intellect are insufficient for appreciating it. 

 An artist attempts to infuse his artwork with Rasa, the spirit or essence of the work.  The art patron strives to detect the Rasa.  Parts of Rasa are mood, determinants, consequents, and complementary emotional states, enduring emotional state, and involuntary bodily emotions.  The kinds of Rasa are erotic, comic, pathetic, furious, heroic,  terrible, odious, marvelous, and quiescent.  Rasa is not made, it is bestowed. 

 Traditional artists of India of emphasize aesthetics, which to them is a state of heightened awareness and empathic bliss, of a spiritual kind, beyond pleasure. 

 Dance, drama, and music are classically a single artform. 

 Classical Indian arts are inseparable from religion. 

 ===Thoughts=== 

 The classical art traditions of these cultures has strong parallels with Western tradition, which I don't find surprising."