inner emotion in art

Unknown - Amitabha Triad (1400)

Like the artist of the Middle Ages, Asian artists also interpreted the body so as to transmit inner meaning. A representation of Buddhist deity with eyes cast down, figure and draperies in smooth curves, embodies the idea of contemplation.

The "Angry Actor," an eighteenth-century Japanese print, is so confused anatomically that one wonders how his body works, but his anger is perfectly clear. This is indicated by the squares standing on their corners, by the sharp contrasts of dark and light, by the jagged contour against the background with hardly a line parallel to the frame.

Torii Kiyomasu - Angry Actor