Performing the Visual : The Practice of Buddhist Wall Painting in China and Central Asia, 618-960 / Sarah E. Fraser.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fraser, Sarah E., Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (400 p.) : 4 tables, 155 illustrations, 1 map

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Performing the Visual explores the practice of wall painting in China from a new perspective. Relying on rare, virtually unpublished drawings on Buddhist themes from a long-hidden medieval library in western China, the author analyzes the painters' pictorial strategies. She also examines the financial accounting of Buddhist temples, providing practical information that ninth- and tenth-century critics ignored: how artists were paid and when, the temple's role as mediator between patrons and artists, and the way painters functioned outside the monastic system, working in guilds and secular academies affiliated with local government. Based on the careful study of hundreds of inaccessible wall paintings at Dunhuang, arguably Asia's largest and most important Buddhist site, the author shows that although critics celebrated spontaneous feats with brush and ink, artists at Dunhuang were heavily dependent on concrete tools such as sketches in the preparation of wall painting.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Introduction. The Sketch: Historical, Thematic, and Stylistic Issues

1. The Economics of Buddhist Art: Compensation and Organization

2. The Cognitive Practices of the Wall Painter

3. The Influence of the Dunhuang Sketches: Fenben and Monochrome Drawing

4. Banners and Ritual-Practice Diagrams: Two Additional Types of Sketches

5. Performance: Orality and Visuality

6. Sketching, Performance, and Spontaneity in Tang China

Appendix 1: Ground Plans and Elevations of Fifteen Cave-temples with The Magic Competition, 862–980 c.e.

Appendix 2: Location of Common Compositions in Grottoes, 862–980 c.e.

Appendix 3

Table a: Measurements of The Magic Competition Murals and Sketches

Table b: Measurements of Raudraksha and Sariputra in The Magic Competition

Table c: Height of Subsidiary Figures Depicted Near Raudraksha’s Dais in The Magic Competition

Appendix 4: Sets of Near-Identical Banners

Reference Matter

Notes

Bibliography

Character List

General Index

Index of Paintings and Manuscripts Cited

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 31. Jan 2022)

ISBN:

1-5036-2026-3

OCLC:

1294425732