Synopses & Reviews
Empire of Great Brightness is an innovative and accessible history of a high point in Chinese culture as explored through the riches of its images and objects. Emphasizing the vibrant interactions between China and the rest of Asia at this period, it challenges notions of Ming China as a culture closed off from the rest of the world. Eminent historian Craig Clunas uses a wide range of pictures and objects from Ming China to illustrate areas such as painting and ceramics. He also draws on items like weapons and textiles from public and private collections, as well as contemporary sources from government edicts to novels, to illuminate this most diverse period of Chinese art and culture.
Empire of Great Brightness offers a varied and stimulating resource for scholars of Chinaandrsquo;s cultural history, historians and art historians of related aspects of the early modern world, and readers who are intrigued by Chinaandrsquo;s past.and#160;andldquo;An excellent companion for the study of Ming art, as well as giving established scholars food for thought and engaging in Ming Chinese culture.andrdquo;andmdash;
Art Newspaperandldquo;This is an eminently readable history of the high point of Chinese cultures, seen through the riches of its images and objects.andrdquo;andmdash;Asian Art Survey
Review
and#8220;An excellent companion for the study of Ming art, as well as giving established scholars food for thought and engaging in Ming Chinese culture.and#8221;
Synopsis
Published to accompany a major British Library exhibition,
Mughal India showcases the British Libraryandrsquo;s extensive collection of illustrated manuscripts and paintings commissioned by Mughal emperors and other officials. Depicting the splendor and vibrant color of Mughal life, the exquisitely decorated works span four centuries, from the foundation of the Mughal dynasty by Babur in the sixteenth century, through the heights of the empire and the andldquo;Greatandrdquo; Mughal emperors of the seventeenth century, into the decline and eventual collapse in the nineteenth century.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;The lavish artworks cover a variety of subject matter, from scenes of courtly life to illustrations of works of literature. The development of a Mughal style of art can be traced through the illustrations and paintings, as can the influence of European styles. Many of these works have never before been published, and combined here with the engaging narrative of two experts who place each image within its historical and art historical context, they serve to provide us with a beautiful and illuminating view of the art and culture of Mughal India.
About the Author
J. P. Losty was head of visual arts at the British Library for thirty-four years until his retirement in 2005. He has published extensively on illustrated Indian manuscripts and painting in India from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries.
Malini Roy is curator of visual arts at the British Library.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Time, Space and Agency in Ming China
2. Sitting and Roaming: Cultures of Direction and Movement
3. The Word on the Streets: Cultures of Text
4. Pictures in the Chinese Encyclopaedia: Image, Category and Knowledge
5. Pleasure, Play and Excess
6. Dark Warriors: Cultures of Violence
7. 'Walking with a Staff': Ageing and Death
8. Remnant Subjects: Afterlives of Ming Visual and Material Culture
Afterword
References
Bibliography
Acknowledgements and Photographic Acknowledgements
Index