Art History 655 - Chinese Painting

The concept of landscape, or "mountains and waters" (shanshui), was a central preoccupation for Chinese artists, viewers, and collectors. Focusing primarily on the ninth to the eighteenth centuries, this course surveys historical changes in representations of nature through paintings produced for tombs, the imperial court, scholars, and merchants, but also through the decorative arts, private gardens, and imperial grounds. We think about what it meant to make paintings but also what it meant to view paintings. Reading primary texts in translation by seminal artists such as Guo Xi, Dong Qichang, and Shitao in conjunction with analysis of major monuments, students gain a foundation in the development of Chinese painting, while investigating the cultural, political, and economic contexts that have shaped ideas about landscape and environment. All readings in translation.