"Water Under a Bridge: Further Thoughts on the Qingming Scroll," by Julia Murray

Abstract

Reviewed by: "Water Under a Bridge: Further Thoughts on the Qingming Scroll," by Julia Murray Patricia Ebrey Julia Murray, "Water Under a Bridge: Further Thoughts on the Qingming Scroll," JSYS 27 (1997): 99–107. Julia Murray, in this brief nine-page note, demonstrates the benefit of the multi-disciplinary nature of JSYS. She responds as an art historian to two articles by historians which offered contrasting conclusions on the date and subject of Qingming shanghe tu 清明上河圖. The heart of Murray's piece is her matter-of-fact identification of what would be beginners' errors to an art historian. One was to assume that the painter was expressing his personal feelings and convictions, which she labels as a romantic notion of the artist. Art was regularly made for patrons who hired artists to work for them and often chose the subject matter. A related error was to think that the painting could be dated accurately on the assumption that the artist wanted to capture every detail of the city as it existed at the time. A court artist working for the emperor would be savvy enough to know that the painting should show the city in all its glory and not draw attention to less flattering details. Another error, she suggests, was to pay little attention to the material basis of the painting and how it was made—it is not just a picture, to be analyzed for what it shows, but also a physical object. To her, such a large painting, done with such evident care, is more plausible as the work of an artist working for the court. Enjoy this clear, concise example of cross-disciplinary conversation. We may all love to marvel at the detail of this painting and push our students to tell [End Page 225] us what they see, but Julia Murray doesn't want us to forget that it is a work of art. In addition, she gives a master class in the reading of the documents attached to the painting, helping us see them as responses over time to an object whose meaning was not fixed. Patricia Ebrey University of Washington (Emerita) Copyright © 2021 Society for Song, Yuan, and Conquest Dynasties Studies