Cover image for Visualizing Dunhuang : the Lo Archive photographs of the Mogao and Yulin Caves
Visualizing Dunhuang : the Lo Archive photographs of the Mogao and Yulin Caves
Title:
Visualizing Dunhuang : the Lo Archive photographs of the Mogao and Yulin Caves
Author:
Lo, James C. M., 1902-1987, photographer.
ISBN:
9780691208152
Publication Information:
Princeton, New Jersey : P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for East Asian Art, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University : in association with Princeton University Press, [2021]
Physical Description:
9 volumes : illustrations, maps, plans ; 35 cm
General Note:
"The Lo Archives photographs of the Mogao and Yulin Caves in Dunhuang, China, were made in 1943-44 by James and Lucy Lo, with the assistance of Gu Tingpeng. The Lo Archive is held by Princeton University."--Volume I, title page verso.
Contents:
Reference. The Lo Archive: Dunhuang to Princeton / Views of Mogao: Mogao Cliff -- Architectural drawings of cave types -- Number of Lo photographs: Visual index of missing photographs -- Concordances of Mogao Cave numbering systems: By Dunhuang Academy number ; By Zhang Daqian number ; By Pelliot number ; By historical period. Mogao Caves. Northern Liang (420-439) -- Northern Wei (439-534) -- Western Wei (535-556) -- Northern Zhou (557-581). Mogao Caves. Sui Dynasty (581-618). Mogao Caves. Early Tang (618-704). Mogao Caves. High Tang (704-781). Mogao Caves. Middle Tang (781-848) -- Late Tang (848-907). Mogao Caves. Five Dynasties (907-960) -- Song Dynasty (960-1036) -- Uyghur Period (Mid-Eleventh Century) -- Western Xia (1036-1227) -- Yuan Dynasty (1227-1368) -- Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). Yulin Caves. Site elevation and plans of Yulin -- Concordance of Yulin Cave numbering systems -- Views of Yulin: Zhang Daqian at Yulin -- Early Tang (618-704) -- Middle Tang (781-848) -- Five Dynasties (907-960) -- Song Dynasty (960-1036) -- Uyghur Period (Mid-Eleventh Century) -- Western Xia (1036-1227) -- Yuan Dynasty (1227-1368). Essays. Dunhuang as historical archive : The Lo Archive's place in documentary, expeditionary, and art photography during China's Republican Period / The Dunhuang Collection in the hermitage / The significance of the Lo Archive / Buddhist art at Dunhuang and the Lo Archive / Dunhuang as site: architecture and setting : Architecture and land on the dark side of the moon: the Mogao Caves and Mount Sanwei / What did "architecture" do in visualizing Dunhuang? / Conserving the Mogao grottoes: the thirty-year collaboration of the Dunhuang Academy and the Getty Conservation Institute / Dunhuang as art and art history : Reflections on early Dunhuang Caves: textiles, thrones, and crowns / Narrative, architecture, and figuration in Mogao Cave 420 / Dunhuang's contribution to Chinese art history: a historiographic inquiry
Abstract:
"The city of Dunhuang, in north-west China, is situated at the crossroads of two major trade routes within the Silk Road network, and was one of the first trading cities encountered by merchants arriving in China from the west. It was also an ancient site of Buddhist religious activity, and a popular destination for pilgrims, as it lay on the pilgrim route from Tibet to the sacred Mount Wutai. The Mogao Caves, also known as the Qianfodong (the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas), a collection of nearly 500 caves in the cliffs to the south of the city, contain the largest depositary of historic documents along the Silk Roads and bear witness to the wide range of activity that took place in Dunhuang across the first millennium, until the 11th century, when its role in Silk Road trade began to decline. Named a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organbization) World Heritage Site, the Mogao Caves are an astonishing collection of 492 caves dug into the cliffs just south of the city, between 366 AD and sometime in the 13th or 14th century. Rich with Buddhist imagery-paintings and statues--the caves illustrate the evolution of Buddhist imagery during a significant period. Visualizing Dunhuang presents for the first time in print the photographic archive created in the 1940s by James C. M. Lo (1902-1987) and his wife, Lucy L. Lo (1920-) of the Buddhist caves at Dunhuang. The photographs provide an invaluable historical record because of the thoroughness of their coverage and clarity, and serve as documents of sites and locations that have long been closed or made inaccessible. The Lo Archive transcends minimal standards of documentary and expeditionary photography and offers images of unusual aesthetic value that cross into the realm of artistry. The Archive has even greater significance when viewed as a vast resource for historical, cultural, and artistic research in Dunhuang studies-a treasure trove of historical information for researchers, art historians, and conservators, as it presents a now-vanished perspective of the caves from the 1940s This nine-volume set will include on introductory volume with an essay about the formation and history of the Lo Archive, photographs of the landscape around the caves now altered after decades of change, newly commissioned 3-D diagrams, and concordances; seven volumes of approximately 3000 photographs with diagrammatic maps; and a volume of essays that address the impact of the Lo Archive and how Dunhuang has been visualized from ancient times to the present"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliographical References:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Field 805:
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