Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8Th-14th Century (Princeton Monographs in Art and Archaeology, No 48) [Hardcover]

Wen C. Fong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1992 | ISBN-10: 0300057016 | ISBN-13: 978-0300057010 | Edition: First Edition

This book presents a survey of Chinese painting from the eighth to the 14th century, a period during which the nature of China's pictorial art changed dramatically. Illustrated by works in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the author begins by describing the advent toward the end of the Bronze Age of figural representation in Chinese art, and next traces the development of Chinese landscape painting from the third to the tenth century. He then moves on to discuss the art of the Sung dynasty, when the imperial government was increasingly absolute and repressive. In this period artists shifted from a realistic rendition of nature to more symbolic representation of single flowers, rocks and trees. By the time of the Yuan dynasty, following the Mongol conquest of 1279, objective representation in art had been replaced by imagery that drew on the artist's inner response to his world. Because it was believed that the meaning of a painted subject, made complex by personal and symbolic associations, could no longer be expressed without language, the painter began to inscribe poems and incorporate calligraphy in his works, the multiple relationships among word, image and calligraphy forming the basis of a new art. At this stage Chinese art entered its richest and most diverse stage f development.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Fong is one of today's most authoritative voices in the study of Chinese painting and calligraphy. Here he uses works from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to illustrate the history of painting and calligraphy during the Five Dynasties, Northern Sung, Southern Sung, and Yuan periods. Comparisons with better-known paintings in other collections are occasionally made, but one of the book's major purposes is to serve as a showcase for the Metropolitan collection, which detracts somewhat from its effectiveness as a history. Still, the reproductions throughout are of good quality, and Fong's prose is accessible to readers without much prior knowledge of the subject. The discussion of calligraphy is particularly clear. Recommended for large public and academic collections-- Kathryn W. Finkelstein, M.Ln., Cincinnati
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 549 pages
• Publisher: Yale Univ Pr; First Edition edition (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300057016
• ISBN-13: 978-0300057010
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,640,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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