Mist-ery

Mist creates a sense of mystery, in the religious sense, like clouds of incense in a church.







When I took Asian art history, my professor talked about how the Western, or Greek, mind tends to prefer clarity and brightness in a view. We consider it a perfect view of a mountain if not a cloud is in the sky and the sun is making it gleam. And that is indeed a great view (see "Holy, holy" below).

But the Chinese landscape almost always shows a misty mountain and the mist was there for spiritual reasons. I remember reading a remark by a Chinese artist to the effect that one did not paint the physical likeness of a mountain, but its spirit or its holiness.

On the other hand, when I've seen photos of Chinese mountains, they often are misty in the same manner as the paintings, so maybe they paint them that way because that's just how they are.

Or do they take pictures on misty days because that's how they like to see the mountains, just as I might photograph Baker on a particularly clear day? Photographs are also interpretive, not just representational.