Chinese Painting

Catalog description

This course is a chronological and topical survey of Chinese painting from the 3rd century BCE to the 20th century. Topics will include functions of paintings in mortuary and religious contexts, issues of imitation and reference in Chinese pictorial tradition, imperial patronage and painting academies, practices of connoisseurship and collecting, scholar painting and theories of representation, the interplay between painting and calligraphy, and the encounter of Chinese paintings and painters with non-Chinese traditions. While the primary focus of our attention will be on paintings executed on silk or paper, we will also study bronze vessels, stone and brick carvings, painted lacquer objects, and wall paintings, in order to gain a better understanding of the evolving pictorial language and strategies of representation.