Chinese Portraiture
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: First ed.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Slipcase: worn. Faded spine, otherwise fine.
Few artistic traditions rival the psychological depth and cultural richness of Chinese portraiture, a discipline that transformed the painted human face into a vessel of moral character, social status, and spiritual resonance across two millennia. Eli Lancman's Chinese Portraiture presents a compelling and authoritative survey of this often-overlooked genre, tracing its evolution from the ritualistic ancestor portraits of the Han dynasty through the refined court paintings of the Ming and Qing periods, illuminating how Chinese artists understood likeness not as mere physical resemblance but as a revelation of inner virtue. Lancman argues with scholarly precision that portraiture in China occupied a unique philosophical space, deeply informed by Confucian ideals of propriety and the Daoist sensitivity to spirit resonance — the classical concept of *qiyun* — that governed all great Chinese painting. Published by the esteemed Charles E. Tuttle Company, renowned for its authoritative works on Asian art and culture, this volume combines rigorous art-historical analysis with a rich visual programme that instructs as much as it captivates. For anyone seeking to understand how a civilization encoded its values, hierarchies, and humanity onto the human face, this work remains an indispensable and enduring study.
Author: Eli Lancman
Format: Hardback
Published: 1966, Charles E. Tuttle Company
Genre: History of arts
Edition: First ed.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Slipcase: worn. Faded spine, otherwise fine.
Few artistic traditions rival the psychological depth and cultural richness of Chinese portraiture, a discipline that transformed the painted human face into a vessel of moral character, social status, and spiritual resonance across two millennia. Eli Lancman's Chinese Portraiture presents a compelling and authoritative survey of this often-overlooked genre, tracing its evolution from the ritualistic ancestor portraits of the Han dynasty through the refined court paintings of the Ming and Qing periods, illuminating how Chinese artists understood likeness not as mere physical resemblance but as a revelation of inner virtue. Lancman argues with scholarly precision that portraiture in China occupied a unique philosophical space, deeply informed by Confucian ideals of propriety and the Daoist sensitivity to spirit resonance — the classical concept of *qiyun* — that governed all great Chinese painting. Published by the esteemed Charles E. Tuttle Company, renowned for its authoritative works on Asian art and culture, this volume combines rigorous art-historical analysis with a rich visual programme that instructs as much as it captivates. For anyone seeking to understand how a civilization encoded its values, hierarchies, and humanity onto the human face, this work remains an indispensable and enduring study.