Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (The Culture & Civilization of China) - Hardcover

From Neolithic era painted petroglyphs, early paintings on silk, and landscapes by 12th-century literati to the traditional handscrolls being produced today, this book recounts the history of Chinese painting over a span of some 3000 years. Drawing on museum collections, archives, and archaelogical sites in China - including many resources never before available to western scholars - as well as on collections in other countries, the authors present and analyze examples of Chinese painting: nearly 300 of them are reproduced here in colour. Both accessible to the general reader and useful for the scholar, the book provides an up-to-date and detailed history of China's pictorial art. In this book the authors rewrite the history of Chinese art wherever it is found - in caves, temples, or museum collections. They begin by grounding the western reader in Chinese traditions and practices, showing in essence how to look at Chinese painting. They then shed light on such topics as the development of classical and narrative painting, the origins of the literati tradition, the flowering of landscape painting, and the ways the traditions of Chinese painting have been carried into the present day. The book, which concludes with a glossary of techniques and terms and a list of artists by dynasty, is a resource for all those interested in, or newcomers to, Chinese painting. "Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting" is the inaugural volume in a series, "The Culture and Civilization of China", a joint publishing venture of Yale University Press and the American Council of Learned Societies with the China International Publishing Group in Beijing. The undertaking will ultimately result in the publication of more than 75 volumes on the visual arts and on classical literature, language, and philosophy, as well as several comprehensive reference volumes.