Description:
This richly illustrated volume presents carefully researched scholarship undertaken in conjunction with an exhibition of Chinese portraits at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in June 2001. The focus is on a hitherto neglected aspect of Chinese visual culture: portraits created for ritual veneration in the practice of ancestor worship. Despite their powerful presence and exquisite quality, this is the first study of ancestor portraits as a genre. The authors, an art historian/curator (Stuart) and a historian (Rawski, University of Pittsburgh), explore the artistic, historical, and religious significance of ancestor portraits and place them in context with other types of commemorative portraiture. The book offers a broad historical continuum but focuses on practices during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties—the period of the portraits in the Sackler Gallery’s collection, which were carefully preserved by the museum’s conservators for the exhibition. Late Ming and Qing ancestor portraits, which were often created by more than one artist, typically present full-length, seated portraits of individual men and women with special concerns of verism for the faces. Through these stunning paintings, the book presents a fascinating glimpse of Chinese life and culture, including biographical details of some of the portrait subjects who were closely associated with the Qing imperial court. The book appeals to connoisseurs of Chinese art and to all those interested in social history, portraiture, and devotional art.
