Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
London: Reaktion Books, 2023. (288 p., 184 color ill., 15 b/w ill., notes, bibliography, index; 26 cm)
Description
The first extended history of the Chinese picture-scroll. The Chinese picture-scroll, a long, horizontal painting or calligraphic work, has been China's pre-eminent aesthetic form throughout the last two millennia. This first history of the picture-scroll explores its extraordinary longevity and adaptability to social, political, and technological change. The book describes what the picture-scroll demands of a viewer, how China's artists grappled with its cultural power, and how collectors and connoisseurs left their marks on scrolls for later generations to judge.
Subjects
Language
Physical description
288 p.; 26 cm
ISBN
9781789148343
Local notes
From the front jacket flap:
"The Chinese picture-scroll, a long painting or calligraphic work held within a horizontal scrolling mount, has been China's pre-eminent aesthetic format for the last two millennia. This first extended history of the picture-scroll explores its extraordinary longevity, and its adaptability to social, political and technological change. The book describes what the picture-scroll demands of a viewer, how China's artists grappled with its cultural power, and how collectors and connoisseurs have left their marks on scrolls for later generations to judge. The return to mass appeal of scrolling -- a media technology that seemed long outdated yet persists in our digital age -- provides urgent and fascinating context to this book.
CONTENTS
Introduction 7
1 On Origins and Uses over the First Millennium 23
2 Inscribing the Artist and the Collector: The Picture-Scroll in the Song-Liao-Jin 53
3 Handscrolls in Mongol Palaces 89
4 Musing on Shadows: Reading the Ming Picture-Scroll 125
5 Qing: Reading the 'Baroque' Handscroll 155
6 Modernist Uses of the Chinese Picture-Scroll 191
7 The Medium of Silent Poetry in the Late Modern World 223
References 251
Further Reading 274
Acknowledgements 276
List of Illustrations 277
Index 285
"The Chinese picture-scroll, a long painting or calligraphic work held within a horizontal scrolling mount, has been China's pre-eminent aesthetic format for the last two millennia. This first extended history of the picture-scroll explores its extraordinary longevity, and its adaptability to social, political and technological change. The book describes what the picture-scroll demands of a viewer, how China's artists grappled with its cultural power, and how collectors and connoisseurs have left their marks on scrolls for later generations to judge. The return to mass appeal of scrolling -- a media technology that seemed long outdated yet persists in our digital age -- provides urgent and fascinating context to this book.
CONTENTS
Introduction 7
1 On Origins and Uses over the First Millennium 23
2 Inscribing the Artist and the Collector: The Picture-Scroll in the Song-Liao-Jin 53
3 Handscrolls in Mongol Palaces 89
4 Musing on Shadows: Reading the Ming Picture-Scroll 125
5 Qing: Reading the 'Baroque' Handscroll 155
6 Modernist Uses of the Chinese Picture-Scroll 191
7 The Medium of Silent Poetry in the Late Modern World 223
References 251
Further Reading 274
Acknowledgements 276
List of Illustrations 277
Index 285