The Roman author Quintilian said, “Art was inspired by nature, a work of art differs from nature because an artist will transfor
m nature into art.” Examine the painting below by Katsushika Hokusai entitled, The Great Wave of Kanagawa. Explain how the artwork relates to Quintilian’s famous quote, including the artist’s technique(s) and inspiration(s). In the foreground are large blue waves with white caps. In the background is a small mountain on an island.
This particular piece of artwork portrays Quintillian's famous quote because you are getting the artists' point of view of nature by looking at this artwork. You've probably never actually seen this particular landscape with your own eyes, but it gives you a perspective of what it could look like. Whereas, if you were to go to this exact same location, you might see things much differently than the original artists, and if you were to paint it yourself, it might look a lot different than the original. It is all based of the human mind and how different people are in personality wise, that they might portray nature/art a certain way.
