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Ars Orientalis Issue 53

Photograph of a group of men on a boat, looking across a palace on the lake

The 100th Anniversary of the Freer Gallery of Art

Ars Orientalis 53 marks an important juncture in the history of the journal, one of the oldest of its kind devoted to scholarship on Asian art. Published in collaboration with the University of Michigan since 1954, the current volume celebrates the centennial of the Freer Gallery of Art—the first art museum on the National Mall and now part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. Since its inception, Ars Orientalis has reinforced the vision and aspirations of the museum’s founder, Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), in highlighting the burgeoning field of Asian Art, from East Asia to the Mediterranean and North Africa. Seminal articles on Chinese scrolls, Indian bronzes, Japanese screens, Persian manuscripts, and more have regularly offered new scholarly insights and innovative theoretical approaches to generations of scholars around the world. In celebrating the institution’s anniversary, this issue of Ars Orientalis honors the past by presenting new art historical perspectives on the museum’s holdings of Asian art, while also forging a new future for the journal.

Introduction

Digital Initiatives

Digital Initiatives is a column that explores digital tools, research resources, publications, and learning opportunities in art history and related fields, with a special focus on topics relevant to Ars Orientalis readers. In volume 53, the following reviews explore where we have been, where we are, and where we might be going in the use of digital tools and methods in Asian art history.

Ars Orientalis 53

  • Editor-in-Chief

    Massumeh Farhad

  • Managing Editor

    Sana Mirza

  • Publication Coordinator

    Judy Lee

  • Advisory Board

    Qianshen Bai
    Kevin Carr
    Antonietta Catanzariti
    Joan Kee
    Dipti Khera
    Simon Rettig

  • Editor

    Mary Cason

  • Designer

    BookComp
    University of Michigan Publishing

  • Editorial Offices

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Beginning with volume 42 (2012), Ars Orientalis is indexed and abstracted in the Art and Humanities Citation Index®.
Ars Orientalis 53 print copies can be ordered here: https://asia.si.edu/research/ars-orientalis/order/
Current print volume price (excluding shipping): $60

Bourne and Shepherd, Palace in the Lake, Oodeypoor, no. 2277. Charles Lang Freer Papers, National Museum of Asian Art Archives, Smithsonian Institution, FSA.A.01. Collected by Freer in India, 1895

North Exterior Elevation, Freer Gallery of Art. 1915. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 34, Folder: 4. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

The Buddha at birth, Japan, Asuka period, 7th century. Gilt bronze, 11.7 x 5.2 cm. National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto in honor of Yanagi Takashi, F2005.9a–b

View of the basin appearing in a hollow. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, FSA A.6 04.GN.3197

“A Lady offers a cool drink to the poet Saʿdi,” from Prince Baysunghur’s Rose Garden (Gulistan) by Saʿdi, Herat, present-day Afghanistan, dated 1472. Pigment, ink, and gold on paper, Chester Beatty Library, Per 119.36 (© The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin

Gong Kai, Zhongshan Going on Excursion, China, Yuan dynasty, late 13th century–early 14th century. Handscroll; ink on paper, H. 32.8, W. 169.5 cm. National Museum of Asian Art, Freer Collection, Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1938.4

Huang Tingjian (1045–1105). Scroll for Zhang Datong (opening section), Northern Song dynasty, 1100. Handscroll; ink on paper, calligraphy: 34.1 × 552.9 cm, colophons: 34.8 × 303.3 cm, mount: h. 36.4 cm. Princeton University Art Museum, Bequest of John B. Elliott, Class of 1951, y1992-2 2. Image: Courtesy of the Princeton University Art Museum

A demon leading a composite sheep, India, Mughal dynasty, 19th century. Color and gold on paper, 13.7 x 20.6 cm. National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1907.624

Probably by Raku Tannyū (1795–1854). Kōrakuen ware tea bowl with design of Mt. Fuji, Japan, Tokyo, Edo period or Meiji era, 19th century. Earthenware with black Raku and white glazes, H x Diam: 9.2 × 11.7 cm. National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1898.132

Kōno Michisei (1895–1950). Self-Portrait, Japan, 1917. Oil on canvas, 91.2 x 65.3 cm. National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Shuntatsu Kohno and the Kohno family in memory of their father, S1998.115

Cushion cover, Turkey, ca. 1600. Compound satin and velvet, 175 x 128.5 cm. National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1998.306

Hand-Held Pulverer Exhibition Gallery View, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Photograph John Tsantes

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