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Since the establishment of the Ilkhanid Dynasty, Chinese painting has exerted a profound influence on various facets of Persian painting. This influence facilitated the divergence of Persian painting from Arab painting, fostering the gradual formation of an independent style. To explore whether Zen painting, which has been highly influential in contemporary China, also played a role in shaping Persian painting, this article first discusses the possibility that Zen books and Zen paintings were introduced to the Ilkhanid Dynasty. Subsequently, it delves into the illustrations of the Jāmiʿ al-Tavārīkh dating back to 1314–1315, analyzing Zen elements through three lenses: theme, brushwork, and compositional elements. Through this analysis, the article aims to provide insights into the impact of Chinese Zen art on Persian painting, offering a fresh perspective for scrutinizing the broader Chinese influence on Persian art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With reference mainly to Paul Klee's Ad marginem from 193o (reworked 1935/36), this article focuses on space--namely, on the question of how space can be made visible as such. Having figures, lines, and the background establishing an intense interplay of transparency, Klee's work refrains from displaying the mere spatiality of objects. It is this interoeplay of transparent figures entangled with their background that are withdrawing but not disappearing that creates an empty space that is as such limited and unoccupied. Compared to a (Japanese Zen-) garden, the idea of limiting and simultaneously making visible an eminent openness is stressed. Referring, furthermore, to observations like Rilke's poem Shawl or to Toyo Ito's comments on Klee's work, this article aims to display the eminent space character becoming visible in the painter's œuvre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the image of the monkey in the paintings of two prominent monk-painters of the Edo period, Hakuin Ekaku (1685- 1768) and Sengai Gibon (1750-1837). The paper shows that although Hakuin and Sengai's paintings are part of the Zen ink painting tradition, which began following the importation of Zen Buddhism from China at the beginning of the Kamakura period, at the same time they express an emancipation of this tradition. At the base of this free attitude stands the idea of breaking rules, conventions and conceptions, an idea that originated in Zen Buddhism. As a manifestation of this attitude, as I will claim, Hakuin and Sengai's paintings express a freedom from the common conventions of the ink painting tradition. This freedom is reflected in their painting through an amateurish and playful expression resulting in less concern with depicting paintings that are technically highly skilful, as the traditional early paintings were. The precedence of the religious world over the world of art is expressed in Hakuin and Sengai's artwork and biographies. Accordingly, as well as undertaking an investigation of their paintings, through both the formalistic origins of the image of the monkey and its iconography, the examination is supported further with some biographical facts about Hakuin and Sengai. These clarify their relations with the world of art and distinguish them from earlier Zen painters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]