The study considers the artist's practice during the 8th to 10th centuries in China from three perspectives: painting regimes in preparatory sketches, the institutional framework supporting production, and the reception of artistic practice as revealed in contemporary 9th century texts. The function of sketches is determined by qualities of brushwork and linear style; institutions are reconstructed using the tools of social history and ethnoarchaeology; and a structural analysis of artist's biographies reveals significant aesthetic shifts in Tang painting and perception.
I analyze conditions of artistic production in the painting workshop at Dunhuang, the largest Buddhist cave site in Asia located near medieval trade routes. The prolific output of murals and banners from the 8th to 10th centuries suggests active professional ateliers. This is the first major study of early atelier structure and working methods, and their relationship to monasteries and local government; it also links development of Dunhuang's arts industries with an emerging national, public culture in the 9th and 10th centuries. These transformations were concurrent with a shift from a literary, elite-based culture to one that favored indigenous, vernacular forms of expression in both literature and art. For the first time, lay patronage outpaced imperial demand.
In painting, this emerging vernacular or public culture represents a shift from the richly detailed, schematic pictorial vocabulary of the Six Dynasties to a system in which dynamic ink line describes volume and motion. Artists' sketchbooks reveal a new focus on quickly-rendered, bold brushwork to codify and transmit motifs; they display verisimilitude and a keen interest in observable phenomena. This new pictorial dynamism is projected upon the artist's practice. Texts valorize wall painters' ability to sketch mural underdrawings with swift, bold brushwork. Writers liken their movement to dance, and to enlightened states of meditation, portraying the muralists' endeavors as unique and original. Yet, most artists worked systematically within efficient regimes, consistently reusing motifs to decorate cave-shrines. This emerging admiration for fast, freehand brush drawing is explored in the context of a general practice that still used sketches, repetition of designs, and pounces. Over 190 photographs of modern ateliers and medieval sketches are included.
