ABOUT THE EVENT: Pictures of cities appear early on in works of art across Eurasia, but paintings that take the city as their primary subject appear late in history. Sometimes these pictures showcase local products, or thriving commerce more generally. With the emergence of tourism as a practice, cityscapes might advertise a city’s attractions or the grandeur of its elite class reflected in architecture. More rarely cityscapes can stand in for society as a whole. This type of cityscape became the norm in China, but appears in Europe as well. This lecture will survey cityscapes from Song, Ming, and Qing China, with some engaging side trips to Europe.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Martin Powers is Professor in the School of Arts at Peking University and Professor Emeritus in History of Art at the University of Michigan. Recipient of numerous awards, including an NEH award and a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts in D.C., in 2009 he was a Fellow in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His first two books, published by Yale University Press and Harvard University Press East Asian Series respectively, each won the Levenson Prize for Best Book in pre-1900 Chinese Studies (1993 and 2006). His most recent monograph, “China and England: the preindustrial struggle for justice in word and image”, Routledge, 2019, has appeared in Chinese translation, and in two volumes of essays. Together with Dr. Katherine Tsiang, he co-edited “Looking at Asian Art” and the “Blackwell Companion to Chinese Art”. His new manuscript is entitled “23 Lessons in Social Justice from East and West”.

ABOUT THE VENUE: Chongli Residence is one of China's largest highest graded and preserved courtyards, at over 10,000m2. Built in the reign of Guangxu, it is a National Key Cultural Relic, open only to residents and their guests. Nancy Yang is our host for this event and will give an introduction to the history of the Chongli Residence.