Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship History of Art 2015 The Overseeing Mother: Revisiting the Frontal-Pose Lady in the Wu Family Shrines in Second Century China Jie Shi Bryn Mawr College,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/hart_pubs Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Custom Citation Shi, Jie. 2015. "The Overseeing Mother: Revisiting the Frontal-Pose Lady in the Wu Family Shrines in Second Century China." Monumenta Serica 63.2: 263–293. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/hart_pubs/80 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies, 63. 2, 263–293, December 2015 © Monumenta Serica Institute 2015 DOI 10.1080/02549948.2015.1106833 The Overseeing Mother: Revisiting the Frontal-Pose Lady in the Wu Family Shrines in Second- Century China Shi Jie 施傑 Abstract: Located in present-day Jiaxiang in Shandong province, the Wu family shrines built during the second century in the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220) were among the best-known works in Chinese art history. Although for centuries scholars have exhaustively studied the pictorial programs, the frontal-pose female image situated on the second floor of the central pavilion carved at the rear wall of the shrines has remained a question. Beginning with the woman’s eyes, this article demonstrates that the image is more than a generic portrait (“hard motif ”), but rather represents “feminine overseeing from above” (“soft motif ”).