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1 Genre and Biography

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Art by the Book
This chapter is in the book Art by the Book
271Genre and BiographyElle is a highly valuable journal, from the point of view of legend at least, since its role is to present to its vast public which (market-research tells us) is working class, the very dream of smartness.—Roland Barthes (1915–1980)AGROUP OF SKETCHES IN THE PALACE MUSEUM IN BEIJING BEARS THE SIG-nature of the tenth-century professional artist Huang Quan (903–965). The motifs represented are animals and insects realistically rendered and colored, showing their characteristic movements and poses in nature (see plate 3). A brief inscription on the painting notes that the sketches were made as a “study copy” (fenben), also known as a “reference copy” (gaoben or huagao), for his old-est son, Huang Jubao (d. ca. 960).1 In traditional China, the practice of art was taught as a hereditary skill-set or part of family schooling; thus, studies like those Huang Quan made for his son were passed from master to pupil or father to son as a principal means of transmitting motifs and designs. Not only professional artists but also scholar-amateur artists, including Huang’s contemporary Xu Xi (d. before 975), passed on their art in this way.2 Artists also made their own ref-erence copies of original masterpieces, which served as a source for their future practice and inspiration. In a short note inscribed on Dong Qichang’s album Sketches of Traditional Tree and Rock Types (fig. 1.1) in the Palace Museum in Beijing, his friend Chen Jiru observed that “whenever [Dong] made a large com-position, he copied from these sketches.”3 Thus, the study copy was the means by which painting practice was transmitted and model images were preserved for
© 2016, University of Washington Press

271Genre and BiographyElle is a highly valuable journal, from the point of view of legend at least, since its role is to present to its vast public which (market-research tells us) is working class, the very dream of smartness.—Roland Barthes (1915–1980)AGROUP OF SKETCHES IN THE PALACE MUSEUM IN BEIJING BEARS THE SIG-nature of the tenth-century professional artist Huang Quan (903–965). The motifs represented are animals and insects realistically rendered and colored, showing their characteristic movements and poses in nature (see plate 3). A brief inscription on the painting notes that the sketches were made as a “study copy” (fenben), also known as a “reference copy” (gaoben or huagao), for his old-est son, Huang Jubao (d. ca. 960).1 In traditional China, the practice of art was taught as a hereditary skill-set or part of family schooling; thus, studies like those Huang Quan made for his son were passed from master to pupil or father to son as a principal means of transmitting motifs and designs. Not only professional artists but also scholar-amateur artists, including Huang’s contemporary Xu Xi (d. before 975), passed on their art in this way.2 Artists also made their own ref-erence copies of original masterpieces, which served as a source for their future practice and inspiration. In a short note inscribed on Dong Qichang’s album Sketches of Traditional Tree and Rock Types (fig. 1.1) in the Palace Museum in Beijing, his friend Chen Jiru observed that “whenever [Dong] made a large com-position, he copied from these sketches.”3 Thus, the study copy was the means by which painting practice was transmitted and model images were preserved for
© 2016, University of Washington Press
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