Friday, January 24, 4-6pm, CWAC 153
The Panned Out View:
The Illustrated Life of Ippen and the Visibility of Karma in Medieval Japan
Chelsea Foxwell
Assistant Professor
University of Chicago, Art History
The Illustrated Life of the Holy Man Ippen (Ippen hijiri-e, 1299) by Hōgen En’i is distinct from other surviving medieval Japanese handscrolls of eminent monks thanks to a number of compelling visual characteristics. Most notably, its zoomed out, dehierarchized view of the Japanese landscape dwarfs the scrolls’ protagonist in almost every scene. This presentation reviews the circumstances behind the scroll set’s production and evaluates the rationales that scholars have previously offered for its distinctive mode of representation, including the paintings’ relationship to Song dynasty landscape painting. I then compare the scrolls with other, newly republished or reinterpreted paintings from the same period to offer an interpretation of the scrolls’ vantage point from the perspective of medieval Japanese Buddhism and visual culture.
Friday, January 24, 4-6pm, CWAC 153
Persons with disability who may need assistance, please contact anf@uchicago.edu
