The Mediating Work of Art

Abstract

The writer approaches the painting A Solitary Temple below Brightening Peaks (Qingluan xiaosi) as an event that comprises mediations with which the painting engages reflexively. He introduces the painting, which dates from the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), through traditional art historical methods, noting their indirect acknowledgments of mediation. He addresses the limitations of medium as an unspoken point of reference for interpretative approaches to the painting and discusses mediation on its own terms, with a view to starting from its operations rather than finding a way to them. He examines successively the mediating roles played by the ground of the image and by boundary. He then considers the painting's achievement of an ultimate coherence and intensity in relation to the complexity of its mediating work. He also explains why it is important for art history to rethink the artwork as the object of its study.