Between Heaven and Earth: Secular and Divine Figural Images in Chinese Paintings and Objects

by Paul Moss

The extensively researched, in-depth, full-colour catalogue features a painstaking selection of 19 paintings and 47 'literati-taste' objects. The emphasis of all of them is on the extraordinary range of Chinese figural representation, with its tendency to humanize divine images and idealize secular figures, so that they meet somewhere in the middle as 'informal icons'. The earliest work is an important ink handscroll dated 1363, by the Yüan figure painter Chang Wu. A fine and extremely amusing outline handscroll by Leng Mei, painted before 1694, portrays the 18 lohan in a wild and expressive array; quite a rarity. In a completely different vein is the large silk portrait of Yen Hsiang-shih, Commander in Chief of Kansu province in the mid-18th century. Among the objects d'art are a number of rare masterpieces, most notable among them an extremely delicate and rare rhinoceros horn carving of P'u-t'ai with five boys clambering over him.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988