Elegant Offering: a Glimpse of Later Bronze Culture Through Chen Hongshou's Art
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The role of bronzes gradually changed throughout Chinese history from the period of the Xia, Shang and Zhou of three thousand years ago, collectively known as the Three Dynasties, through the Song dynasty of the Chinese culture renaissance to the Ming dynasty, which was a period of social openness, thriving culture and widespread commercialization. The diverse aspects of Chinese bronze at various historical stages explicitly convey that the cultural context of each time period is distinct from others. Bronzes were variously ritual vessels to be worshiped and buried underground for ancestral blessings; great monuments to document past glories of heroes and sage kings; carriers of significant historical records awaiting to be deciphered by the descendants of the Central Plains; symbols of widespread Confucian moral teaching and embodiments of the mandate of Heaven; iconographies of popular culture that appeared in paintings, printing manuals, porcelain designs, architectural ornaments and even garment patterns; as well as purely luxury consumption goods. My curiosity about bronze culture was aroused by the late Ming literati and professional artist Chen Honghou (1598-1652) and his captivating works that depict the rich coloration of metalworks in various interior spaces. I intend to explore and to understand the story behind these bronze objects, trying to answer a series of questions: why did artists such as Chen Hongshou choose to depict bronze antiquities, for what reasons and purposes? Why are they so visually attractive? Was Chen the first artist to pay attention to them? What subtle message did these bronze objects convey within the late Ming material culture milieu?
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | [ca. August 2019] |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Jiang, Xinyue |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Vinograd, Richard |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Stanford Global Studies, Center for East Asian Studies |
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford |
|---|---|
| Subject | East Asian Studies |
| Subject | Ming dynasty |
| Subject | Chen Hongshou |
| Subject | later bronze |
| Subject | Chinese art history |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Jiang, Xinyue. (2019). Elegant Offering: a Glimpse of Later Bronze Culture Through Chen Hongshou's Art . Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/cd573ty3552
Collection
Stanford Center for East Asian Studies Thesis Collection
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- Contact
- xinyuej@stanford.edu
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