Description
Book SynopsisThe 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 The return to mass appeal of scrolling - a media technology that seemed long outdated yet persists in our digital age - provides urgent and fascinating context to this book.
Trade Review'Eruditely written . . . a welcome addition to the corpus of studies on Chinese painting, written by a scholar deeply immersed in the subject and well able to share his knowledge with the reader in an engaging and lively way.' - Nick Pearce, Professor and Richmond Chair of Fine Arts, University of Glasgow
Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter One On Origins and Uses over the First Millennium Chapter Two Inscribing the Artist and the Collector: The Picture-Scroll in the Song-Liao-Jin Period Chapter Three Handscrolls in Mongol Palaces Chapter Four Musing on Shadows: Reading the Ming Picture-Scroll Chapter Five Qing: Reading the 'Baroque' Handscroll Chapter Six Modernist Uses of the Chinese Picture-Scroll Chapter Seven The Medium of Silent Poetry in the Late Modern World References Further Reading Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Index
