Representing Ming China in Fifteenth-Century Persianate Painting. (3rd July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yu, Yusen
• Is Part Of: Ming studies. Number 78(2018)
• Page Start: 57
• Page End: 73
• Publication Date: 2018-07-03
• Subjects: Ming China -- Persianate painting -- the Timurids -- diplomacy -- representation of the other; China -- History -- Ming dynasty, 1368-1644 -- Periodicals; China -- Civilization -- 960-1644 -- Periodicals; 951.02605
• DOI: 10.1080/0147037X.2018.1505587
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0147-037X

Abstract

Abstract : This article preliminarily analyzes a corpus of fifteenth-century Persianate paintings preserved in the Topkapi and Diez albums. It investigates the album paintings as the pictorial evidence to the Persianate first-hand encounter with Ming China. The paintings feature their emphasis on physiognomic verisimilitude of the painted figures and faithful description of their props and clothing. As a totality, they formulate the proto-ethnographic knowledge on China in the Persianate consciousness of this period. The last section on the representation of Chinese beauty, on the other hand, shows how pre-existing stereotyped imagination merged with the first-hand observation.