Home>Course>[CHES5150] Chinese Painting: Aesthetics and History>

Through weekly on-site face-to-face sessions, the course provides an overview of premodern Chinese paintings and will guide the students to examine various topics in the study of the history of Chinese paintings, covering a long-time span from early China, through medieval and early modern periods. It introduces a range of approaches and perspectives to investigate the visual and textual primary materials from different sources and various contexts, e.g., tombs, Buddhist and Daoist temples, courts and imperial palaces, scholars’ studios, and women’s inner quarters. It focuses on the ink paintings on silk or paper, but also touches upon the mural paintings on the walls and considers the intermediality of Chinese paintings in relation to the pictorial arts of other media, e.g., ceramics, woodblock illustrations.

Introduction

Paintings for the Yellow Springs

Paintings as Narrative Illustrations and Didactic Agents

Figure Painting and Portraiture

Efficacious Landscape Painting and Political Authorities

Emperors’ Paintings and Collecting Practices

What is Chinese Literati Painting?

Study Trip (HK Palace Museum)

Buddhist and Daoist Themes

Female Patronage and Women Artists

Practices of Copying and Authenticity Issues

Student Presentation I and Tutorial

Student Presentation II and Tutorial