Visualizing Dunhuang : the Lo Archive photographs of the Mogao and Yulin Caves / photographs by James and Lucy Lo ; edited by Dora C.Y. Ching.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lo, James C. M., 1902-1987, photographer.

Contributor:

Ching, Dora C. Y., editor.

Lo, Lucy, photographer.

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Buddhist art--China--Dunhuang Caves--Pictorial works.

Buddhist art.

Buddhist art and symbolism--China--Dunhuang Caves--Pictorial works.

Buddhist art and symbolism.

Buddhist mural painting and decoration--China--Dunhuang Caves--Pictorial works.

Buddhist mural painting and decoration.

Mural painting and decoration, Chinese--China--Dunhuang Caves--Pictorial works.

Mural painting and decoration, Chinese.

Photography of art.

Dunhuang Caves (China)--Pictorial works.

Dunhuang Caves (China).

China--Dunhuang Caves.

Genre:

illustrated books.

Illustrated works

Illustrated works.

Physical Description:

9 volumes : illustrations, maps, plans ; 35 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for East Asian Art, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University : in association with Princeton University Press, [2021]

Summary:

"The city of Dunhuang, in north-west China, is situated at the crossroads of two major trade routes within the Silk Road network, and was one of the first trading cities encountered by merchants arriving in China from the west. It was also an ancient site of Buddhist religious activity, and a popular destination for pilgrims, as it lay on the pilgrim route from Tibet to the sacred Mount Wutai. The Mogao Caves, also known as the Qianfodong (the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas), a collection of nearly 500 caves in the cliffs to the south of the city, contain the largest depositary of historic documents along the Silk Roads and bear witness to the wide range of activity that took place in Dunhuang across the first millennium, until the 11th century, when its role in Silk Road trade began to decline. Named a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site, the Mogao Caves are an astonishing collection of 492 caves dug into the cliffs just south of the city, between 366 AD and sometime in the 13th or 14th century. Rich with Buddhist imagery-paintings and statues--the caves illustrate the evolution of Buddhist imagery during a significant period. Visualizing Dunhuang presents for the first time in print the photographic archive created in the 1940s by James C. M. Lo (1902-1987) and his wife, Lucy L. Lo (1920-) of the Buddhist caves at Dunhuang. The photographs provide an invaluable historical record because of the thoroughness of their coverage and clarity, and serve as documents of sites and locations that have long been closed or made inaccessible. The Lo Archive transcends minimal standards of documentary and expeditionary photography and offers images of unusual aesthetic value that cross into the realm of artistry. The Archive has even greater significance when viewed as a vast resource for historical, cultural, and artistic research in Dunhuang studies-a treasure trove of historical information for researchers, art historians, and conservators, as it presents a now-vanished perspective of the caves from the 1940s This nine-volume set will include on introductory volume with an essay about the formation and history of the Lo Archive, photographs of the landscape around the caves now altered after decades of change, newly commissioned 3-D diagrams, and concordances; seven volumes of approximately 3000 photographs with diagrammatic maps; and a volume of essays that address the impact of the Lo Archive and how Dunhuang has been visualized from ancient times to the present"-- Provided by publisher.

"The city of Dunhuang, in north-west China, is situated at the crossroads of two major trade routes within the Silk Road network, and was one of the first trading cities encountered by merchants arriving in China from the west. It was also an ancient site of Buddhist religious activity, and a popular destination for pilgrims, as it lay on the pilgrim route from Tibet to the sacred Mount Wutai. The Mogao Caves, also known as the Qianfodong (the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas), a collection of nearly 500 caves in the cliffs to the south of the city, contain the largest depositary of historic documents along the Silk Roads and bear witness to the wide range of activity that took place in Dunhuang across the first millennium, until the 11th century, when its role in Silk Road trade began to decline. Named a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organbization) World Heritage Site, the Mogao Caves are an astonishing collection of 492 caves dug into the cliffs just south of the city, between 366 AD and sometime in the 13th or 14th century. Rich with Buddhist imagery-paintings and statues--the caves illustrate the evolution of Buddhist imagery during a significant period. Visualizing Dunhuang presents for the first time in print the photographic archive created in the 1940s by James C. M. Lo (1902-1987) and his wife, Lucy L. Lo (1920-) of the Buddhist caves at Dunhuang. The photographs provide an invaluable historical record because of the thoroughness of their coverage and clarity, and serve as documents of sites and locations that have long been closed or made inaccessible. The Lo Archive transcends minimal standards of documentary and expeditionary photography and offers images of unusual aesthetic value that cross into the realm of artistry. The Archive has even greater significance when viewed as a vast resource for historical, cultural, and artistic research in Dunhuang studies-a treasure trove of historical information for researchers, art historians, and conservators, as it presents a now-vanished perspective of the caves from the 1940s This nine-volume set will include on introductory volume with an essay about the formation and history of the Lo Archive, photographs of the landscape around the caves now altered after decades of change, newly commissioned 3-D diagrams, and concordances; seven volumes of approximately 3000 photographs with diagrammatic maps; and a volume of essays that address the impact of the Lo Archive and how Dunhuang has been visualized from ancient times to the present"-- Provided by publisher.

Situated at an important juncture within the network of silk routes from China through central Asia, the oasis city of Dunhuang was an ancient site of Buddhist religious activity. Southeast of the city, the Mogao Caves, also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, are an astonishing group of hundreds of caves, carved in the cliffs between the fourth and fourteenth centuries, and containing sculptures and paintings. Further east sit the Yulin Caves, another critical and richly decorated site. Featuring some of the finest examples of Buddhist imagery to be found anywhere in the world, these caves have enticed explorers, archaeologists, artists, scholars, and photographers since the early twentieth century.0'Visualizing Dunhuang: The Lo Archive Photographs of the Mogao and Yulin Caves' presents for the first time in print the comprehensive photographic archive-created in the 1940s by James C. M. Lo (1902-1987) and his wife, Lucy L. Lo (b. 1920)-of the remarkable Buddhist caves at Dunhuang. In this extraordinary nine-volume set, more than 2,500 black-and-white photographs provide an indispensable historical record. Invaluable for their documentary value and artistic quality, and thorough in their coverage and clarity, the images represent a rare perspective on significant monuments, many now irretrievably changed. Exquisitely produced, this landmark publication is a definitive reference for scholars, collectors, and libraries in art history and Asian studies. Published in association with the Tang Center for East Asian Art, Princeton University. "Vol. 9: Essays" is also available separately: ISBN 9780691208169.

Contents:

Volume I. Reference. The Lo Archive: Dunhuang to Princeton / Dora C.Y. Ching

Views of Mogao: Mogao Cliff

Architectural drawings of cave types

Number of Lo photographs: Visual index of missing photographs

Concordances of Mogao Cave numbering systems: By Dunhuang Academy number ; By Zhang Daqian number ; By Pelliot number ; By historical period. Volume II. Mogao Caves. Northern Liang (420-439)

Northern Wei (439-534)

Western Wei (535-556)

Northern Zhou (557-581). Volume III. Mogao Caves. Sui Dynasty (581-618). Volume IV. Mogao Caves. Early Tang (618-704). Volume V. Mogao Caves. High Tang (704-781). Volume VI. Mogao Caves. Middle Tang (781-848)

Late Tang (848-907). Volume VII. Mogao Caves. Five Dynasties (907-960)

Song Dynasty (960-1036)

Uyghur Period (Mid-Eleventh Century)

Western Xia (1036-1227)

Yuan Dynasty (1227-1368)

Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). Volume VIII. Yulin Caves. Site elevation and plans of Yulin

Concordance of Yulin Cave numbering systems

Views of Yulin: Zhang Daqian at Yulin

Early Tang (618-704)

Middle Tang (781-848)

Five Dynasties (907-960)

Yuan Dynasty (1227-1368). Volume IX. Essays. Dunhuang as historical archive : The Lo Archive's place in documentary, expeditionary, and art photography during China's Republican Period / Dora C.Y. Ching & Richard Kent

The Dunhuang Collection in the hermitage / Maria L. Menshikova

The significance of the Lo Archive / Zhao Shengliang

Buddhist art at Dunhuang and the Lo Archive / Roderick Whitfield

Dunhuang as site: architecture and setting : Architecture and land on the dark side of the moon: the Mogao Caves and Mount Sanwei / Cary Y. Liu

What did "architecture" do in visualizing Dunhuang? / Wei-Cheng Lin

Conserving the Mogao grottoes: the thirty-year collaboration of the Dunhuang Academy and the Getty Conservation Institute / Neville Agnew

Dunhuang as art and art history : Reflections on early Dunhuang Caves: textiles, thrones, and crowns / Annette Juliano

Narrative, architecture, and figuration in Mogao Cave 420 / Jun Hu

Dunhuang's contribution to Chinese art history: a historiographic inquiry / Jerome Silbergeld.

Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). Volume VIII. Yulin Caves Site elevation and plans of Yulin

What did "architecture" do in visualizingn huang? / Wei-Cheng Lin II. Yulin Caves Conserving the Mogao grottoes: the thirty-year collaboration of the Dunhuang Academy and the Getty Conservation Institute / Neville Agnew

Notes:

"The Lo Archives photographs of the Mogao and Yulin Caves in Dunhuang, China, were made in 1943-44 by James and Lucy Lo, with the assistance of Gu Tingpeng. The Lo Archive is held by Princeton University"--Volume I, title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Fine ARts Rare copy has dustjackets retained.

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9780691208152

0691208158

OCLC:

1151072097