Art-Historical Fiction or Fictional Art History
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21413698 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J P Park (0009-0002-4307-554X), JongSo Park (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 181-219 |
| Publication date | 2022-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archives of Asian Art (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0066-6637 • E-ISSN: 1944-6497 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00666637-9953432 |
| OpenAlex | W4308214928 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 21 |
In 1634 Zhang Taijie (b. 1588) published a woodblock edition of Baohuilu (A Record of Treasured Paintings), an extensive catalog of a massive painting collection he claimed to have built. This work would seem to be a useful resource for historians of Chinese art since it provides accounts of paintings by artists whose works are no longer extant. But there is one major problem: the book is a forgery. What is more, Zhang also forged paintings to match the documentation he created, so he could also profit from trading in them. Interestingly, the book also echoes unfounded claims registered in art-historical writings of the time, wherein leading critics and connoisseurs, including Dong Qichang (1555–1636), propounded completely contrived arguments by which they tried to establish legitimate lineages in Chinese art. Such propositions represent, borrowing from Eric Hobsbawm's insight, a kind of “invented tradition,” a fictional history of practice and artifact that runs as some thought it ought to have, rather than as it did. By looking into all the three major components of forgeries in early modern China that are referenced throughout Zhang Taijie's catalog—(1) fabricated texts, (2) forged paintings, and (3) fake histories/theories—this paper aims to explain how Baohuilu facilitated Zhang's candid desire for fame and profit in the booming art market of the time, while unveiling certain cultural, social, and genealogical anxieties and tensions negotiated in the form of art-historical theories
Archaeology · Art · Art history · Artifact (error) · China · Documentation · Extant taxon · Literature · Painting · Visual arts · Zhàng · Chinese history and philosophy · Computer Science · History · Japanese History and Culture · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
The politics and poetics of transgression
Li Mengyang, the North-South Divide, and Literati Learning in Ming China
Distinction
Confucian Personalities
Artists and Traditions
The Distant Mountains
Connoisseurship and the Defense Against Vulgarity
Self and Society in Ming Thought
Superfluous Things
Ji'an Literati and the Local in Song-Yuan-Ming China
The Ladder of Success in Imperial China
The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism
Forgeries Signed as Mei Qing
Late Ming Views of Yuan Painting
Suzhou Pian" and Other Dubious Paintings in the Received "Oeuvre" of Qiu Ying
The promise and peril of things
The inventions of history
Crisis and Transformation in Seventeenth Century China
Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644-1912)
TheChinese family as instituted fantasy
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |