travelandcommerceanexaminationofxieshichens.docVIP

Travel and Commerce: An Examination of Xie Shichen’s Topographical Paintings of Mount Wudang March 1, 2004 Lauren Nemroff, Assistant Professor of Art History and Humanities Ariel Jacobs, Art History Major, May 2005 expected graduation Abstract: During the mid-sixteenth century the Suzhou professional artist Xie Shichen (1487-c.1560) painted numerous landscapes of topographically identifiable sites throughout the Ming empire (1368-1644). Like many Ming artists he traveled widely during his lifetime and gained first-hand knowledge of many of his landscape subject which include Mount Wudang in Hubei province, Mount Hua in Shaanxi, and Taihang in Henan province, and the Wu Gorge of the Yangzi river. Many of these topographical paintings take the format of monumental hanging scrolls that were typically used to decorate the reception halls in the homes of wealthy merchant residences in urban Suzhou. What distinguishes Xie’s production from other large-scale sixteenth-century landscapes is the inclusion of diverse social actors engaged in clearly delineated episodes of trade and commerce, Buddhist and Taoist pilgrimage, and literati tourism. Our research project examines Xie Shichen’s landscapes in light of middle Ming China’s increasingly mobile society and the unprecedented opportunities for travel and tourism afforded by greater access to government administered roads and waterways. In particular we propose to undertake an examination of Xie’s depictions of Mount Wudang, a site famous for its complex of Taoist temples and sites. In the Jiajing era (1522-66) the emperor refurbished the temple, an act of imperial patronage that initiated large numbers of pilgrims to flock to the sacred marchmount. The first stage of our research involves a comparative study of the actual site and the two extant Wudang paintings in Chinese collections (Shanghai Museum and Qingdao Museum). We seek to identify the artist’s strategies and his models for structuring these comp