Universal Principles of Art

23 CROSS-CULTURAL FERTILIZATION

CULTURES INSPIRE EACH OTHER WHEN THEY MEET

One of the continual driving forces in the ongoing evolution of art is the energy that occurs when the works of one culture become available to another. For instance, the Romans were heavily influenced by Greek sculpture. In the colonial era, imported artworks from China and India seized the attention of European artists. Rococo artists, such as François Boucher (1703–70), made designs based on Chinese textiles and paintings during the resulting chinoiserie craze of the eighteenth century. Similarly, in the 1850s, when Japan was opened to European traders, the following influx of Japanese prints and artifacts fueled a revolution in design and painting. Vincent Van Gogh ...