age of wushu caligraphy annotation book guide

Slowly perusing a scroll or album, one shares an intimate experience that has been repeated over the centuries. To 'read' these works is to enter a dialogue with the past. Together the text and illustrations gradually reveal many of the major themes and characteristics of Chinese painting. Numerous large color details, accompanied by informative captions, allow the reader to delve further into the most significant aspects of each work. All illuminate the main goal of every Chinese artist: to capture not only the outer appearance of a subject but also its inner essence. Spanning more than a thousand years, from the eighth through the seventeenth century, the subjects represented are particularly wide-ranging: landscapes, flowers, birds, figures, religious subjects, and calligraphies. Style, technique, symbolism, past traditions, historical events, and the artist's personal circumstances all come into play. Hearn's elegantly erudite yet readable text discusses each work in depth, considering multiple layers of meaning. How to Read Chinese Paintings seeks to visually analyze thirty-six paintings and calligraphies from the encyclopedic collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in order to elucidate what makes each a masterpiece.

The Chinese way of appreciating a painting is often expressed by the words du hua, 'to read a painting.' How does one do that? Because art is a visual language, words alone cannot adequately convey its expressive dimension.

Age of wushu caligraphy annotation book guide