What is Chinese painting? When did it begin? And what are the different associations of this term in China and the West? In Chinese Painting and Its Audiences, which is based on the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts given at the National Gallery of Art, leading art historian Craig Clunas draws from a wealth of artistic masterpieces and lesser-known pictures, some of them discussed here in English for the first time, to show how Chinese painting has been understood by a range of audiences over five centuries, from the Ming Dynasty to today. Richly illustrated, Chinese Painting and Its Audiences demonstrates that viewers in China and beyond have irrevocably shaped this great artistic tradition.
Arguing that audiences within China were crucially important to the evolution of Chinese painting, Clunas considers how Chinese artists have imagined the reception of their own work. By examining paintings that depict people looking at paintings, he introduces readers to ideal types of viewers: the scholar, the gentleman, the merchant, the nation, and the people. In discussing the changing audiences for Chinese art, Clunas emphasizes that the diversity and quantity of images in Chinese culture make it impossible to generalize definitively about what constitutes Chinese painting.
Exploring the complex relationships between works of art and those who look at them, Chinese Painting and Its Audiences sheds new light on how the concept of Chinese painting has been formed and reformed over hundreds of years.

本書以一個嶄新的研究取向，拓展了我們對文徵明（1470–1559）這位偉大藝術家的瞭解。不同於以往的研究成果聚焦於文徵明作品的外在形式，作者於本書中特別關注作品的製作情境，例如時機與場合，盡可能地利用文徵明當時的文獻材料（特別是其詩文）與作品，並參照人類學、社會學、歷史學和藝術史學的研究成果與方法，自人情義務與禮物交換的角度，重新審視文徵明的生平與作品，探索文徵明如何在各種活動場域中建構主體與自我。
書中共有八章，每一章皆以某種場域、某一組特定的關係類型作為參考架構，這兩者不僅定義了文徵明的自我認同，同時也是他據以待人接物的出發點。第一部分的三章處理了與文徵明前半生有關的場域，包括家族、師長、同儕；第二部分是透過官場與地緣檢視其社交關係，援引的資料橫跨其一生；第三部分則著重處理他後半生的場域，包括顧客與弟子。最後一章檢視在文徵明死後如何凝聚出一個一貫且鮮明的「偉大藝術家」形象。

Screen of Kings is the first book in any language to examine the cultural role of the regional aristocracy or ‘kings’ – relatives of the emperors – in Ming dynasty China (1368–1644). Through an investigation of their patronage of architecture, calligraphy, painting and other art forms, and through examination of the contents of their splendid and recently excavated tombs, this innovative study puts the aristocracy back at the heart of accounts of China’s cultural and artistic histories, from which they have until very recently been excluded.
In this book, Craig Clunas sheds new light on many familiar artworks, as well as works that have never before been reproduced. Screen of Kings challenges much of the received wisdom about Ming China; new archaeological discoveries have furnished us with evidence of the lavish, spectacular lifestyles of the country’s provincial kings and demonstrate how central the imperial family was to the high culture of the Ming era.
Written by the leading specialist in the art and culture of the Ming period, this new work of scholarship illuminates a key aspect of China’s past, and will significantly alter our understanding of Ming dynastic power and relations. It will be enjoyed by anyone with a serious interest in the history and art of this great civilization.

世袭贵族在明代历史研究中基本上被忽略了，或仅仅是其他一些更令人关注的研究对象故事里的脚注。《藩屏》一改旧例，将明朝的贵族（包括被历史遗忘的宗室女性艺术家）作为主角，以王国的艺术生产为中心，讲述王国的历史与地理。这本独具一格的专著，有可能会修正人们对明代艺术的理解。