Starting from Erwin Panofsky’s view of perspective as a symbolic form, this article compares the Chinese literati painter (wenren hua) with Walter Benjamin’s flâneur. The author contrasts the Western conception of space, finite in Roman painting and infinite and homogeneous in the Renaissance, and the anthropocentric function of linear perspective, with Chinese painting from the Tang dynasty onward, where space and time are depicted in continuous evolution and the viewer is drawn into a natura naturans. Like the flâneur, the literatus leads a reclusive life (yinyi) that allows him to observe, reflect and reappropriate his relationship with the world, expressing it through multiple perspectives, calligraphic marks and winding paths that invite the viewer’s journey. Brushwork thus becomes a trace of the artist’s presence (hic et nunc) and a form of performance involving the bodies of both painter and spectator. Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Fog and Gerhard Richter’s Berg (1981) exemplify the Western gaze of conquest and its aftermath. Finally, Hong Lei’s reworking of Zhao Mengfu’s Autumn Colors on the Que and Hua Mountains shows how a return to tradition can critique China’s rapid modernisation and help reformulate cultural identity.