Art in China

by Clunas, Craig

• ISBN13: 9780192842442
• ISBN10: 0192842447
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-05-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

China can boast a history of art lasting 5,000 years and embracing a huge diversity of images and objects - jade tablets, painted silk handscrolls and fans, ink and lacquer painting, porcelain-ware, sculptures, and calligraphy. They range in scale from the vast 'terracotta army' with its 7,000or so life-size figures, to the exquisitely delicate writing of fourth-century masters such as Wang Xizhin and his teacher, 'Lady Wei'. But this rich tradition has not, until now, been fully appreciated in the West where scholars have focused their attention on sculpture, downplaying art more highlyprized by the Chinese themselves such as calligraphy. Art in China marks a breakthrough in the study of the subject. Taking into account all the arts practised in China, and drawing on recent innovative scholarship, Craig Clunas examines the production and consumption of art in its appropriate contexts. He deals with art found in tombs, patronised byrulers, displayed in temples, created by the upper classes, and bought and sold in the marketplace. Full coverage is given of the twentieth-century, including the state-controlled art of the Mao Zedong era and the art of the 80s and 90s driven by the international art markets.

Table of Contents

Introduction	9	(6)
Chapter 1 Art in the Tomb	15	(30)
Neolithic to Bronze Age: 2500 - 200 BCE	15	(14)
The First Empires: 221 BCE - 220 CE	29	(6)
North and South: 220 CE - 589 CE	35	(5)
Tomb Sculpture: 400 - 650 CE	40	(5)
Chapter 2 Art at Court	45	(44)
Tang to early Song: 618 - 960 CE	45	(8)
Northern Song Court Art: 960 - 1127 CE	53	(5)
Southern Song Court Art: 1127 - 1279 CE	58	(5)
Yuan Court Art: 1279 - 1368 CE	63	(3)
Ming Court Art: 1368 - 1644 CE	66	(6)
Early Qing Court Art: 1644 - c.1735 CE	72	(7)
The Qianlong Reign: 1736 - 1795 CE	79	(5)
Late Qing Court Art: 1796 - 1911 CE	84	(5)
Chapter 3 Art in the Temple	89	(46)
Early Buddhist Art	89	(3)
Buddhist Art: c.450 - c.580	92	(5)
Religious Art of the Sui (581 - 618) and Tang (618 - 906) Dynasties	97	(15)
Religious Art of the Northern Song Dynasty: 960 - 1127	112	(1)
Southern Song Religious Art: 1127 - 1279	113	(4)
Buddhist Monks and the Elite in the Southern Song	117	(4)
Buddhist Art in the Yuan Dynasty: 1279 - 1368	121	(2)
Religious Painting of the Fourteenth - Fifteenth Centuries	123	(4)
Religious Art of the Ming Dynasty: 1368 - 1644	127	(4)
Religious Art of the Qing Dynasty: 1644 - 1911	131	(4)
Chapter 4 Art in the Life of the Elite	135	(38)
Calligraphy as an Elite Art	135	(6)
Art and Theory in the Northern Song	141	(3)
The Southern Song (1127 - 1279) and Yuan (1279 - 1368)	144	(9)
The Ming Dynasty: 1368 - 1644	153	(7)
The Art and Theory of Dong Qichang: 1555 - 1636	160	(2)
The Seventeenth Century and the Ming - Qing Transition	162	(3)
The Qing Dynasty: 1644 - 1911	165	(4)
The Nineteenth Century	169	(4)
Chapter 5 Art in the Market-Place	173	(51)
The Song and Yuan Dynasties: 960 - 1368	173	(2)
The Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644): Painting	175	(6)
The Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644): Printing	181	(4)
The Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644): Textiles and Crafts	185	(2)
The Amateur/Professional Problem in Late Ming Painting	187	(4)
The Qing Dynasty: 1644 - 1911	191	(3)
Prints and Perspective	194	(5)
Shanghai in the Nineteenth Century	199	(2)
The Republic of China	201	(8)
Art in the People's Republic of China	209	(8)
Art in China since the 1970s	217	(7)
Notes	224	(2)
List of Illustrations	226	(5)
Bibliographic Essay	231	(7)
Timeline	238	(10)
Index	248