DOCSLIB.ORG

What Are the Symptoms and Causes for Mechanical Damage to Multi-Layered Scrolls and What Can Be Done to Prevent and Treat Them?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
What Are the Symptoms and Causes for Mechanical Damage to Multi-Layered Scrolls and What Can Be Done to Prevent and Treat Them? What are the symptoms and causes for mechanical damage to multi-layered scrolls and what can be done to prevent and treat them? MA Conservation and Restoration Programme Book and Paper Specialisation Master’s Thesis * What are the symptoms and causes for mechanical damage to multi-layered scrolls and what can be done to prevent and treat them? Adam Macklin 11353899 Supervisor: Elizabet Nijhoff Asser (UvA) RCE contact: Bill Wei (RCE) June 2018 Adam Macklin, UvA, 2018 1 What are the symptoms and causes for mechanical damage to multi-layered scrolls and what can be done to prevent and treat them? Table of Contents Abstract 4 Abstract in English 4 Abstract in het Nederlands 5 1. Introduction 6 2. Context and Literature Review 8 2.1 Scrolls 8 2.2 Mechanical forces of scrolls 12 2.3 Materials 15 - Paper 15 - Parchment 16 - Silk 16 2.4 Cultural context of scrolls 16 2.5 Mechanical damage symptoms suffered by scrolls 19 2.6 Conservation treatments for mechanical damage 21 3. Method 25 3.1 Terminology 25 3.2 Mechanical Damage Terms 30 3. 3 Survey Method 34 Introduction 34 Motivation 34 Selection of scrolls 34 Survey methods 35 3.4 Models Method 36 Introduction 36 Motivation 36 Selection of materials and styles 36 Method of making the models 37 4. Results 39 4.1 Survey results 39 Folds 40 Planar Distortion 43 Parallel tears 45 Edge damage 47 Model results 49 5. Discussion 51 5.1 Folds 51 5.2 Planar distortion 56 5.3 Planar tears 57 5.4 Edge damage 59 5.5 Esther scroll 61 Adam Macklin, UvA, 2018 2 What are the symptoms and causes for mechanical damage to multi-layered scrolls and what can be done to prevent and treat them? 6. Conclusion 65 Acknowledgements 66 Annotated Bibliography 67 Appendices 70 1. Glossary of terms & mechanical terms 70 2. Database of survey 73 3. Reference for the survey 82 All figures or photos used herein are drawn or taken by Adam Macklin, if not referenced. *Cover Photo; detail of Gods of Longevity with Attendants, CBLC1222 © The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. Adam Macklin, UvA, 2018 3 What are the symptoms and causes for mechanical damage to multi-layered scrolls and what can be done to prevent and treat them? Abstract This thesis for the Masters in Conservation and Restoration in the Book and Paper specialization will investigate the symptoms and causes of mechanical damage in multi- layered scrolls. Through the analysis of an international survey of scrolls and the building of models, this research will not only further our understanding of the structure of scrolls but also provide guidelines for handling, storing and displaying scrolls. The prime motivation for this study was an Esther scroll in the collection of the Jewish Historical Museum. This scroll is made from parchment and sewn to a silk backing. The parchment has been cut into to, leaving pictorial depictions of the story of Esther in the parchment. On permanent display, it shows mechanical damage including folds, planar distortion and edge damage. Despite its unique structure, as a multi-layered scroll it presents the same symptoms of mechanical damage that is present in Chinese and Japanese paper and silk scrolls. The current literature on scroll damage and treatments frame this study. Most of the literature focuses on Far Eastern scrolls. Despite this and the fact that materials used vary, the same mechanical forces are present in all multilayered scrolls. The research this survey carried out was primarily in the form of a survey. The collections in Dublin’s Chester Beatty Library and Amsterdam’s Jewish Historical Museum provided a wealth of information on the symptoms of mechanical damage. The study focused on different directional folds and creases, planar distortion, tears and edge damage. The causes of these types of damage can be traced back to the display, storage and handling of scrolls. The making of models was also used to understand the construction and how the chosen materials immediately reacted when rolled up into a scroll. The results from this study provide guidance for all scroll collections on the symptoms and causes of mechanical damage along with ways of preventing and treating the scrolls. By understanding the severity and location of certain types of mechanical damage it is possible to chart the origins of it. When understood, this mechanical damage can be treated or prevented. It will be shown that some mechanical damage may be inevitable due to the very nature of scrolls’ physical structure. Other symptoms can be reduced through considered care. This study will provide a point of reference for custodians of collections, whether conservators or curators, on the display, storage and handling of multi-layered scrolls. Adam Macklin, UvA, 2018 4 What are the symptoms and causes for mechanical damage to multi-layered scrolls and what can be done to prevent and treat them? Abstract Deze scriptie voor de Master onderzoekt de symptomen en oorzaken van mechanische schade in meerlagige boekrollen. Door de analyse van een internationaal overzicht van rollen en het bouwen van modellen, zal dit onderzoek niet alleen ons begrip van de structuur van de rollen verbeteren, maar ook richtlijnen bieden voor het hanteren, bewaren en weergeven van rollen. De voornaamste reden voor deze studie was een Esther-boekrol in de collectie van het Joods Historisch Museum. Deze ‘scroll’ is gemaakt van perkament en genaaid op een zijden ondergrond. In het perkament is het verhaal van Esther in afbeeldingen uitgesneden. Door het permanent tentoonstellen vertoont de rol mechanische schade, waaronder plooien, vlakke vervorming en beschadiging aan de randen. Ondanks zijn unieke structuur vertoont deze meerlagige rol dezelfde symptomen van mechanische schade die aanwezig is in Chinese en Japanse rollen van papier en zijde. De huidige literatuur over schade en behandelingen van rollen geven de grenzen van deze studie aan. Het grootste deel van de literatuur concentreert zich op rollen uit het Verre Oosten. Ondanks dit en het feit dat de gebruikte materialen variëren, zijn dezelfde mechanische krachten aanwezig in alle meerlagige rollen. Het onderzoek dat is uitgevoerd vond voornamelijk plaats in de vorm van een enquête. De collecties in de Chester Beatty Library in Dublin en het Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam leverden een schat aan informatie over de symptomen van mechanische schade. De studie richtte zich op verschillende directionele plooien en vouwen, planaire vervorming, scheuren en randbeschadiging. De oorzaken van dit soort schade zijn terug te voeren op het tentoonstellen, opslaan en hanteren van rollen. Het maken van modellen werd ook gebruikt om de constructie te begrijpen en hoe de gekozen materialen onmiddellijk reageerden toen ze in een rol werden opgerold. De resultaten van deze studie bieden richtlijnen voor alle rol-verzamelingen over de symptomen en oorzaken van mechanische schade, samen met manieren om schade te voorkomen en te behandelen. Door de ernst en locatie van bepaalde soorten mechanische schade te begrijpen, is het mogelijk om de oorsprong ervan in kaart te brengen. Wanneer begrepen, kan deze mechanische schade worden behandeld of voorkomen. Er zal worden aangetoond dat enige mechanische schade onvermijdelijk kan zijn vanwege de aard van de fysieke structuur van de rollen. Andere symptomen kunnen worden verminderd door zorgvuldig hanteren. Deze studie biedt een referentiepunt voor bewaarders van collecties, conservators of curatoren, voor het tentoonstellen, opslaan en hanteren van meerlagige rollen. Adam Macklin, UvA, 2018 5 What are the symptoms and causes for mechanical damage to multi-layered scrolls and what can be done to prevent and treat them? 1 Introduction This thesis will explore the symptoms and causes of mechanical damage to multi-layered scrolls and examine treatment and prevention methods. By focusing on mechanical damage this work will not investigate chemical or biological deterioration. Rather, the focus will be on damage from handling, storing and displaying scrolls. The research has focused on multi-layered scrolls rather than single layered substrates that have been rolled up. The aim is to investigate the relationship between the artwork and its mounts. There are inherent issues with multi-layered scrolls’ structure. There are also problems resulting from handling, storing and exhibiting multi-layered scrolls. Scrolls can be stored in ways that neglect its condition or ways that aim to prolong its life. Displaying culturally important scrolls is unavoidable. The system and durations of this display can have a physical effect on the object. Terminology is an important facet for this thesis. Glossaries of terms have been provided in the Appendices to aid the reader. Where required, terms will be explained in more detail in the text. Figure 1.1 A section of the Esther scroll M000433 at the Jewish Historical Museum, photo courtesy of the JHM. The motivation for this thesis is to expand our knowledge of scrolls. The Esther scroll at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, see figure 1.1, exhibits severe mechanical damage. It is a central piece for the museum and has been on display for over 20 years. It exhibits strong planar distortion making it hard to display and read. Its condition is not Adam Macklin, UvA, 2018 6 What are the symptoms and causes for mechanical damage to multi-layered scrolls and what can be done to prevent and treat them? fully understood which makes any treatment complicated. For conservators to prolong the life of such an important object more research must be carried out on the mechanics of scrolls. Conservation has opened up greatly to science and uses chemistry and biology readily. However, mechanics is less understood by conservators. This thesis aims to advance the process of inculcating mechanics into book and paper conservation 1.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Tenth-Century Painting Before Song Taizong's Reign
    Tenth-Century Painting before Song Taizong’s Reign: A Macrohistorical View Jonathan Hay 1 285 TENT H CENT URY CHINA AND BEYOND 2 longue durée artistic 3 Formats 286 TENT H-CENT URY PAINT ING BEFORE SONG TAIZONG’S R EIGN Tangchao minghua lu 4 5 It 6 287 TENT H CENT URY CHINA AND BEYOND 7 The Handscroll Lady Guoguo on a Spring Outing Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk Pasturing Horses Palace Ban- quet Lofty Scholars Female Transcendents in the Lang Gar- 288 TENT H-CENT URY PAINT ING BEFORE SONG TAIZONG’S R EIGN den Nymph of the Luo River8 9 10 Oxen 11 Examining Books 12 13 Along the River at First Snow 14 15 Waiting for the Ferry 16 The Hanging Scroll 17 18 19 289 TENT H CENT URY CHINA AND BEYOND Sparrows and Flowers of the Four Seasons Spring MountainsAutumn Mountains 20 The Feng and Shan 21 tuzhou 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 290 TENT H-CENT URY PAINT ING BEFORE SONG TAIZONG’S R EIGN 29 30 31 32 Blue Magpie and Thorny Shrubs Xiaoyi Stealing the Lanting Scroll 33 291 TENT H CENT URY CHINA AND BEYOND 34 35 36 Screens 37 38 The Lofty Scholar Liang Boluan 39 Autumn Mountains at Dusk 292 TENT H-CENT URY PAINT ING BEFORE SONG TAIZONG’S R EIGN 40Layered Mountains and Dense Forests41 Reading the Stele by Pitted Rocks 42 It has Court Ladies Pinning Flowers in Their Hair 43 44 The Emperor Minghuang’s Journey to Shu River Boats and a Riverside Mansion 45 46 47tuzhang 48 Villagers Celebrating the Dragonboat Festival 49 Travelers in Snow-Covered Mountains and 50 .
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture Notes, by James Cahill
    Lecture Notes, by James Cahill Note: The image numbers in these lecture notes do not exactly coincide with the images onscreen but are meant to be reference points in the lectures’ progression. Lecture 12D: Sōgen‐ga Sōgenga, the title Iʹve given to this next section, is simply the Japanese pronunciation of Song Yuan hua 宋元畫/ 宋元画, or Song and Yuan painting. But Iʹve used it loosely for the kind of Song and Yuan paintings preserved mainly in Japan, many representing types unknown in China, and what we call Chan painting is prominent among them. I gave a seminar at U.C. Berkeley under this title, and then organized an exhibition of the same title, made up of paintings of this kind as kept in our University Art Museum, along with examples borrowed from dealers in Japan. It was a small and quiet exhibition that didnʹt get much publicity, didnʹt cost much (we had a $5,000 grant from the Society for Asian Art in San Francisco), and produced only a very modest catalog. But Iʹm still devoted to this kind of painting, which I know well from many years of making the rounds of Japanese collectors and dealers, so Iʹve devoted this section of my last lecture to it. So if this section is seen by any multimillionaire who wants to build a collection of these paintings, and maybe a museum of them, get in touch with me for some introductions and advice. For the rest of you, just enjoy them and try to pay more attention to them in the future.
    [Show full text]
  • Qi Baishi: a Master of Many Arts
    QI BAISHI: A MASTER OF MANY ARTS Qi Baishi was equally renowned for his achievements in seal carving as for his contributions to modernizing traditional literati painting; he was also a master calligrapher and poet. He was born to a poor farming family in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, and learned Chinese characters from his grandfather, who used a stick to trace them in the dirt. Physically unsuited to farming tasks, he was apprenticed to a woodcarver, but at nineteen he came across a book that would change his life: the Mustard Seed Garden Manual, a classic early Qing dynasty (1644–1911) treatise illustrating traditional techniques of literati painting. Qi taught himself to paint from it, refining his skills and studying the arts of seal cutting, poetry, and calligraphy with the many teachers he met as an itinerant woodcarver. His life spanned a period of great upheaval and reform in Chinese culture, but his unique style and politically neutral subjects allowed him to remain in favor through different regimes and cultural shifts. At the end of his life, he was lauded as the “People’s Artist,” elected honorary Chairman of the National Association of Fine Arts, and given the International Peace Award by the World Peace Council. With the resurgence of interest in ink painting in contemporary China, Qi Baishi, sometimes referred to as “China’s Picasso,” is celebrated as one of the leading artists of the twentieth century and his paintings are highly sought after by collectors and museums. Qi Baishi China, 1864–1957 Crabs circa 1930 Album leaf, ink on paper Gift of Katsuizumi Sotokichi, University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1949/1.199 inscribed: To Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • East Asian Art Toolbox: Material World
    East Asian Art Toolbox: Material World About this Toolbox: This toolbox provides educators with the means of bringing hands-on activities and discussions relating to the Detroit Institute of Arts’ collection into the classroom. Offering students the opportunity to closely examine and touch replica artworks, the toolbox helps them better understand the messages, materials, and methods of art production and design. Learning Target: Through a variety of hands-on experiences, students will investigate different artistic mediums in order to discover how artists have applied various tools and technology in the transformation of raw materials into works of art. Students will also explore ways in which East Asian painting and calligraphy in various formats convey cultural values. Toolbox Objects 1. Silk Hanging Scroll 7. Metal Samples: Bronze Discs, Steel Discs, 2. Paper Handscroll Copper Plate 3. Papermaking Kit 8. Paper Samples: Mulberry Kozo Paper, 4. Calligraphy Kit Bamboo/Mulberry Paper, Mulberry/Cotton 5. Seal Stamp Kit Paper, Lacquered Paper 6. Wood Samples: Lacquered Wood 9. Stone Samples: Soapstone, Jade, Turquoise Chopsticks with Porcelain Rest, Bamboo 10. Ceramic Samples: Four Different Types of Chopsticks in Bamboo Case, Handmade Celadon Dishes Rosewood Chopsticks Inlaid with Mother- 11. Fabric Samples: Silk Scarf and Polyester of-Pearl Bojagi Table Runner Student Books • The Empress and the Silkworm by Lily Toy Hong • Lóng is a Dragon: Chinese Writing for Children by Peggy Goldstein • Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth by Joan Schoettler • Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean by Sigrid Schmalzer Please see https://www.eagle.pitt.edu/ for additional book resources and activities. VIRTUAL TIP • Provide students with photos of the objects and copies of the graphic organizer through a Learning Management System (LMS).
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture Notes, by James Cahill
    Lecture Notes, by James Cahill Note: The image numbers in these lecture notes do not exactly coincide with the images onscreen but are meant to be reference points in the lectures’ progression. Lecture 9B: Political and Poetic Themes in Southern Song Painting As we move into a period from which more reliable work survives, we can begin to address big concerns such as political themes in court painting, and poetic painting. The latter, poetic painting, means different things to different people; I myself gave a series of lectures that turned into a book titled The Lyric Journey: Poetic Painting in China and Japan (Harvard University Press, 1996). As I acknowledge in that book, there are a number of ways one can define poetic painting in China; I certainly donʹt claim that mine is the only right one, or even that itʹs the best way. In a broad sense, a lot of Southern Song Academy and academy‐style painting can be called poetic, either because it was done in response to couplets and quatrains of poetry presented to the artists by the emperor or others in the court, or simply because they knew that their imperial patrons preferred paintings that could be called poetic. I will develop that theme more as we move further into Southern Song painting; but I want to keep it always problematic, not a quality that one can define clearly or identify easily in paintings. Political Themes and Dynastic Restoration 9.13.1: The Virtuous Brothers Po‐I and Shu‐chʹi in the Wilderness Picking Herbs, early copy after Li Tang, handscroll, Palace Museum, Beijing.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Scrolls
    CHINESE RESOURCES FOR EDUCATORS SCROLLS Appreciating Chinese Calligraphy, (video) Asian Art Museum – Chong Moon Lee Centre for Asian From The MRAG Collection EDUCATION Art and Culture. Sourced 9 August 2010 from: http://www.asianart.org/educationalvideos.htm#china Asia: Art Gallery of New South Wales (website) Art Gallery of New South Wales. Sourced 9 August 2010 from: http://www.asianart.com.au/ ACROSS KLAS K-6 Asia for Educators (website) Weatherhead East Asian Institute, University of Columbia. Sourced 9 August 2010 » Eastern art and poetry often uses metaphor, from: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ where the seasons, or the beauty of a flower, are Kan, D. (1974) The How and Why of Chinese Painting. used to embody ideas like knowledge, politics or Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York. philosophy. Write your own short poem and create Schardt, M. (1995) Brushstrokes: styles and techniques an artwork inspired by it. of Chinese painting. Education Kit, Asian Art Museum – » Research the traditions of Chinese New Year and Chong Moon Lee Centre for Asian Art and Culture. create a newspaper report which explains the traditions. » China, like Japan, Britain and other parts of Europe, CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL 7-12 have traditional methods and equipment to be used in the preparation of tea. Host a tea ceremony » Reproducing the work of masters is a respected with your class. tradition in Chinese art history, as emulation was K-6 a way of fostering techniques and skills. Consider ART MAKING the artists you have studied and consider how their work has affected your style or techniques. » Use food colouring and brushes on wet paper and » Many of the scrolls in the MRAG Collection paint flowers or birds like the ones in the Chinese incorporate image and text into their compositions.
    [Show full text]
  • Torah (/ˈtɔːrəˌˈtoʊrə/; Hebrew: הרָוֹתּ, “Instruction, Teaching”)
    Torah Sefer Torah at old Glockengasse Synagogue (reconstruction), Cologne ,Instruction“ ,ּתֹוָרה :Torah (/ˈtɔːrəˌˈtoʊrə/; Hebrew Teaching”), or the Pentateuch (/ˈpɛntəˌtuːk, -ˌtjuːk/), is the central reference of the religious Judaic tradition. It has a range of meanings. It can most specifically mean the first five books of the twenty-four books of the Tanakh, and it usually includes the rabbinic commen- Silver Torah Case, Ottoman Empire Museum of Jewish Art and taries. The term Torah means instruction and offers a way History of life for those who follow it; it can mean the continued narrative from Genesis to the end of the Tanakh, and it can even mean the totality of Jewish teaching, culture and generation to generation and are now embodied in the practice.[1] Common to all these meanings, Torah con- Talmud and Midrash.[2] sists of the foundational narrative of the Jews: their call According to rabbinic tradition, all of the teachings found into being by God, their trials and tribulations, and their in the Torah, both written and oral, were given by God covenant with their God, which involves following a way through Moses, a prophet, some of them at Mount Sinai of life embodied in a set of moral and religious obliga- and others at the Tabernacle, and all the teachings were tions and civil laws (halakha). written down by Moses, which resulted in the Torah we In rabbinic literature the word “Torah” denotes both the have today. According to a Midrash, the Torah was cre- Torah that is ated prior to the creation of the world, and was used as the“ ,תורה שבכתב) five books, Torah Shebichtav -blueprint for Creation.[3] The majority of Biblical schol תורה) written”), and an Oral Torah, Torah Shebe'al Peh Torah that is spoken”).
    [Show full text]
  • Teachers' Guide for Painting
    Painting TO THE TEACHER OBJECTIVES OF THIS UNIT: To introduce students to one of the major Chinese arts. To raise questions about what we can infer from paintings about social and material life. To introduce the distinction between court and scholar painting and allow discussion of the emergence of landscape as a major art form. TEACHING STRATEGIES: This unit can be taught as a general introduction to Chinese painting or the two main subsections can be taught independently, depending on whether the teacher is more interested in using painting to teach about other things or wants to discuss painting itself as an art. WHEN TO TEACH: In a chronologically-organized course, Painting should not be used before the Song period, as most of the examples in this unit are from the Song and Yuan dynasties. If both Calligraphy and Painting are used, Calligraphy should precede Painting, as it provides valuable information on social and aesthetic values which informed the study, evaluation, and collecting of both types of works of art. This unit would also be appropriate in a course on Chinese art. http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/painting/tptgintr.htm (1 of 3) [11/26/2001 10:59:00 AM] Painting We know from textual and archaeological sources that painting was practiced in China from very early times and in a variety of media. Wall paintings were produced in great numbers in the early period of China's history, but because so little early architecture in China remained intact over the centuries, few of these large-scale paintings have survived.
    [Show full text]
  • Edo: Art in Japan 1615-1868; Teaching Program
    edo teach.qxd4 12/9/98 10:42 AM Page 1 Teaching Program Edo art in japan 1615 – 1868 national gallery of art, washington edo teach.qxd4 12/9/98 10:42 AM Page 2 The exhibition Edo: Art in Japan 1615 – 1868 is made possible by NTT Exhibition dates: 15 November 1998 through 15 February 1999 edo teach.qxd4 12/9/98 10:42 AM Page 1 Edo Art in Japan 1615 – 1868 Teaching Program National Gallery of Art, Washington edo teach.qxd4 12/9/98 10:42 AM Page 2 acknowledgments notes to the reader This teaching program was written for the The Japanese government has designated education division by Christine Guth, an inde- numerous works of art as National Treasures, pendent scholar. Since receiving her Ph.D. in Important Cultural Properties, or Important Art Fine Arts from Harvard University in 1976, she Objects because of their artistic quality, historic has taught at institutions such as Harvard, value, and rarity. Several works with these des- Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania. ignations are included in this publication. Her recent publications include Art, Tea, and Industry: Masuda Takashi and the Mitsui Circle Dimensions are in centimeters, followed by (Princeton, 1993) and Art of Edo Japan: The Artist inches in parentheses, height preceding width, and the City, 1615Ð1868 (New York, 1996). and width preceding depth. Concept development and teaching activities Cover: Watanabe Shik¿, Mount Yoshino, early by Anne Henderson, Heidi Hinish, and Barbara eighteenth century, detail from a pair of six- Moore. panel screens; ink, color, and gold on paper, Private Collection, Kyoto Thanks to Leo Kasun, Elisa Patterson, Ruth Perlin, Renata Sant’anna, Takahide Tsuchiya, Title page: Dish with radish and waves design, and Susan Witmer for their assistance with c.
    [Show full text]
  • Genizah Fragments
    To receive Genizah What’s in your suitcase? Fragments, to inquire What do rice, locks, rat traps, a potentially hazardous voyage about the Collection, coconut scraper, several ladles across the Indian Ocean. or to learn how to assist and four bed legs have in Elizabeth Lambourn’s with its preservation common? The foundations of a Abraham’s Luggage: a social life and study, please write Two Ronnies’ sketch? Maybe, of things in the Medieval Indian to Dr Ben Outhwaite, but they are all items that Ocean world mines this text, Head of the Genizah Abraham ben Yijū, the twelfth- and its wider context, as a study HOW YOU CAN HELP YOU HOW Research Unit, at century Jewish trader, packed in material culture. The book is Cambridge University for a journey back across the actually quite remarkable in the The Newsletter of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, Cambridge University Library No. 77 April 2019 Library, West Road, sea from his adopted home of detail it manages to extract Cambridge, CB3 9DR, Mangalore. Abraham, who was from a single Genizah the subject of Amitav Ghosh’s document, one that actually England. celebrated In an Antique Land, came to Elizabeth’s attention More fragments of early Torah scroll come to light made two lengthy sojourns on when she reviewed Mordechai takes on a life in the wider The Library can be the Malabar Coast, before Friedman and S. D. Goitein’s world of scholarship, reached by fax (01223) sailing back across the Indian India Traders for the journal informing areas of inquiry that 333160 or by telephone In 1959 the paleographer Ocean to Yemen for the last South Asian Studies.
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture Notes, by James Cahill
    Lecture Notes, by James Cahill Note: The image numbers in these lecture notes do not exactly coincide with the images onscreen but are meant to be reference points in the lectures’ progression. Lecture 10B: Bird‐and‐Flower Painting: Emperor Huizong and After This second part of Lecture 10 is about the bird‐and‐flower painting of the time of Emperor Huizong and, later, includes a brief look at a slightly earlier artist. As in the lecture that preceded this one, my approach will be mainly visual: how bird‐and‐flower painting changes stylistically; what the different artists contributed. I’ll deal with the paintings ascribed to Emperor Huizong only with regard to style and authenticity: what characterizes the paintings that I take to be really from his hand. And that account will differ strongly from whatʹs been written about them before. On the other hand, much of the really valuable arguments made in the writings of Patricia Ebrey and Maggie Bickford, cited in my remarks, you will have to get by reading their writings, as I recommend strongly that you do. Also, Alfreda Murck has written an article in which she attempts to relate one of the paintings weʹll see early on in this lecture, Cui Baiʹs Hare and Magpies painted in 1061, to a particular incident in history. I wonʹt comment on that, except to say that sheʹs a terrific scholar and if youʹre serious about the subject you should read her article —it was presented at a panel honoring Ellen Laing. 10.20 Cui Bai 崔白 (active ca.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: Formats
    Chinese painting and calligraphy: formats The earliest surviving Chinese paintings are found on silk funerary banners of the second century BC. Wall paintings and rubbings of figural scenes from stone bas- reliefs are known from the second century AD. From the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), the Chinese have inscribed important scholarly and religious texts on stone, then used damp, absorbent paper to make rubbings. This was used as a means of reproduction before the invention of printing in the Tang dynasty (AD 618-906). Rubbings were also important in the training of calligraphy, since scholars could learn from copies by the great masters. The most common formats in Chinese painting and calligraphy are the hanging scroll, the handscroll, the album leaf and the fan painting. The vertical hanging scroll was meant to be viewed by a group of people together, and was used for large landscapes and figure compositions. The handscroll was suited to a small group to unroll and read section by section, from right to left. The painting and subject matter were often more delicate than that of the other formats. The album contained a series of leaves by a single artist, or works on a related theme by several artists. Fan paintings, either the round or folding arc-shaped type, showed genre subjects in an unusual compositional format. In the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), paintings on glass were produced, mainly for export (though the Qianlong emperor (1735-95) received some as gifts). The picture was viewed from the front, but painted from the back, a technique also used on inside- painted snuff bottles.
    [Show full text]