FLOWERING IN THE SHADOWS: WOMEN IN THE HISTORY OF CHINESE AND JAPANESEPAINTING by Marsha WeidnerReview by: Nancy S. AllenArt Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Vol. 10, No. 4(Winter 1991), pp. 203-204Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27948400 .

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Art Documentation, Winter 1991 203

ests in photography. There can be little doubt that augment ing the availability of information about the holdings in this nation's photographic collections facilitates and promotes further investigative research and scholarly writing concern ing the medium.

Christine Bunting University of California, Santa Cruz

TEXTILES HANDWEAVING; AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY / Isabel Buschman.?Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1991.?

250 p.?ISBN 0-8108-2403-5 (cl., alk. paper); LC 91-7153: $20.50.

In his foreword to Ann Sutton's book, Ideas in Weaving, Junichi Arai notes, "From ancient times to the present day, mankind has been deeply concerned with fabric, from the cloth we are wrapped in at birth to the cloth we are wrapped in at death....Cloths are the proud emblem that connects us to God, and the weaver is a standard-bearer....Newly con

ceived fabrics change our consciousness, change our spirit and so can change future society." Historically, the interest in handweaving has been widespread and continues to grow, especially with the Art Fabric movement, and is reflected in the large number of books and periodicals that have been published on the topic. It is, therefore, surprising that Busch mar?s publication is the first extensive bibliography to appear that encompasses techniques, history, and appreciation of

weaving in general, and handweaving in particular. Buschman, an assistant professor/cataloger at the Univer

sity of Wyoming Libraries, gains some control of the abun dant body of literature by limiting her scope to publications written in or translated into the English language and only to those written or reprinted within the last 50 years. The first and largest section of the book, 373 entries, covers handweaving processes and specific projects. Entries are ar ranged alphabetically by author and provide full biblio graphic information and a short, descriptive annotation. Be cause so many topics are merged into this one section? weaving techniques, dyes, loom construction, designs, and projects?browsing for books on one aspect is difficult. A well-constructed and detailed subject index facilitates loca tion of publications on a specific topic, however. The second section, focusing on handweaving history and artistry, offers 84 titles covering all countries and periods. One gets the impression that Native American handweaving, the subject

of the third section, is a personal passion of the author, given the separate treatment and the annotations that seem to be just slightly longer and more embellished than in the other sections. Twenty-six reference works, dealing with terminol ogy, techniques, supplies and services, periodical indexes, software for weavers, and more general textile bibliogra phies, comprise the fourth section. Finally, the last section lists 24 periodicals, all English language as well, that would be of most interest to weavers. No attempt is made to in clude individual articles, however. Author and title indexes are provided in addition to the subject index.

Although Buschman's coverage is broad and wide ranging, it still cannot be considered exhaustive. As a check, the head ing "hand weaving" was searched in RLIN and limited to English language and the publication years 1940-1990. Over 700 books were identified (Buschman's bibliography lists 528, excluding the periodical titles). Of these titles in RLIN, the first 100 were matched against Buschman's publication; only slightly more than half were included in her book. The author does not specify whether she selected what she considered to be the best of the available publications, listed only those to which she had access to write the annotations, or had other criteria for inclusion. The titles selected certainly form the core of the literature, however, and all key titles are listed.

The audience for which Handweaving would prove useful is wide: the hobbyist, seeking information on projects and

techniques; the fiber artist, pursuing creative uses of the me dium; the art historian, researching materials on a particular culture or tradition. Although the publication is limited to English-language materials, the subject coverage is interna tional. Buschman's bibliography serves not only to provide some control of the substantial body of literature written on handweaving, but also to reveal the dazzling variety available on the subject.

Judy Dyki Cranbrook Academy of Art

CHINESE & JAPANESE PAINTING FLOWERING IN THE SHADOWS: WOMEN IN THE HISTORY OF CHINESE AND JAPANESE PAINTING / Edited by Marsha Weidner.?Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991.?315 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-8248-1149-6 (cl., alk. paper); LC 90-11001: $35.00.

How can a book devoted to so broad a topic as the role of women in Chinese and Japanese painting break new ground in 1991? Stereotypes of Asian women as subordinate and submissive dominated the literature of the West during the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the writings of

missionaries, wives of diplomats, and journalists. Those mis conceptions, augmented historically by the complete lack of appreciation for the contributions of women in Western art, fostered, until recently, a biased view of Asian artistic tradi tions. Two recent exhibitions provided provocative visual and scholarly challenges to the male-dominated writing of Asian art history.

Ninety paintings, calligraphy, woodblock prints, and ce ramics created by Japanese women artists were shown at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas in 1988. The catalogue for the show, Japanese Women Artists 1600-1900 (Patricia Fister, Lawrence: Spencer Museum of Art, 1988) provided information on individual artists and an ex tensive bibliography on women during the Edo period. The same year the first exhibition devoted to Chinese women artists was held at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Views from the Jade Terrace: Chinese Women Artists 1300-1912 (New York: Indianapolis Museum of Art and Rizzoli, 1988) estab lished the contributions of women artists to the history of

Chinese painting. Complete with an appendix indexing ex tant and reproduced paintings by women and a valuable bib liography, this catalogue combined artist biographies and stylistic analysis in a well-illustrated text.

In the foreword to Flowering in the Shadows: Women in the History of Chinese and Japanese Painting, Yale University art historian Richard Barnhart admits that in 20 years of teach ing, he almost never discussed the "feminine components" of the East Asian cultural tradition. This practice he now un derstands to be unacceptable, for without acknowledgment of the contributions of women the history of art is "de humanized." The 10 essays which comprise Flowering in the Shadows will do much to raise questions about this im balance and foster the reconsideration of past answers.

For the editor, Marsha Weidner, the initial impetus for this book was the lack of information about Asian women artists in Western languages for use by her undergraduate students.

The essays, contributed by leading scholars such as James Cahill, Stephen Addiss, Patricia Fister, and Akiyama Terukazu, address this void by reexamining the history of premodern Chinese and Japanese painting. Seven essays explore the contributions of individual female artists to the painting tradi tions of China and Japan; two take a didactic approach con sidering the manner in which several works of art informed women of their role in society; finally, one essay discusses females as patrons and collectors of art.

Although the essays are clear and accessible to an in formed undergraduate, the book contains many features

which elevate it to a more scholarly level. Marsha Weidner's introduction provides a coherent overview of the historical,

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204 Art Documentation, Winter 1991

religious, social, and cultural issues surrounding the contri butions of women to the artistic traditions of China and Japan. All the essays are enhanced by the consistent addition of dates following references to periods and individuals newly introduced into the text. Thorough footnoting leads students and scholars alike to a wide range of historical and art historical references, with Japanese titles given in both romanization and translation. In addition, each essay is fol lowed by a glossary in which proper names, titles of books, and terms are listed alongside their equivalent Chinese and Japanese characters and, where appropriate, dates. An ex

tensive index of Chinese, Japanese, and English terms pro vides cohesion to the contributions of this anthology.

One significant disappointment was the decision to view this book as a complement to the aforementioned exhibition catalogues, a decision which justified the use of rather poorly reproduced, black-and-white illustrations for this text. The publisher should have had more faith in the value of the scholarship contained within and understood it warranted a more expensive tome complete with color illustrations. In spite of this failing, the book is recommended for collections which serve undergraduate and graduate students in East Asian or women's studies.

Nancy S. Allen Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

ART & PAGEANTRY "ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE...": ART AND PAGEANTRY IN THE RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE / Edited by Barbara Wisch and Susan Scott Munshower.?(Papers in Art History from The Pennsylvania State University, vol. VI)?University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1990?2 vol.: ill.?ISBN 0-915773-05-8 (pa): $45.00.

The lavish Renaissance and Baroque festivals tell of the times when wealthy rulers and their extended families toured the courts of Europe. Magnificent pieces of ephemeral archi tecture and art were designed and built for the spectacles staged to celebrate royal entries, birthdays, marriages, and coronations. For funerals ornate catafalques were built, churches decorated with skeletons, and long processions of notables and mourners marched through cities. To announce and document the events, a book, pamphlet, or broadside was often printed which described these festivities. The liter ature of festivals describes not only the celebrations but also the life of the city. Although focused on certain eminences from the government, court, or clergy, festivals engaged all the people who took part in them. The documents tell of the persons who played central roles as well as the viewers who were the audience. Festival productions brought together the skills of local artists and artisans, poets, dramatists, and dance masters in an entrepreneurial program not unlike the Rose Bowl Parade or New Year's Eve in Times Square in our own time.

The shape of festivals varied in accordance with the avail able natural and artistic resources; festivals were dependent on local talent, funds, and, of course, the weather. In cities, the decorations and events elaborated upon permanent architecture and buildings. Monuments and arches were

draped and extra ornaments added. Operas and dance pro grams were staged in gardens, and fireworks were set off dramatically in public squares. If the town had a harbor or if it was on a river, boats and barges were designed to exploit the dramatic impact of a sudden sighting and perspective views from various parts of the city.

Past scholarship on festivals has dealt with the well-known examples in Western Europe during the Renaissance and Ba roque periods, particularly the festivals of Italy, France, and the Low Countries. However, festivals were held from the late middle ages through the 19th century, and similar spectacles and ceremonies were presented during this period all over Europe.

Research on festivals focuses on the arts but extends to allied disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and science. Printed and archival sources on festivals are fruitful for scholars from many diverse areas: anthropologists, so ciologists, economists, historians of science. The economics of the festival productions is a particularly fascinating area. Like the building of the Gothic cathedrals, the celebrations were good uses for available talent and natural resources, but they also produced a significant drain on the local fi nances. Some of the most spectacular features of festivals were the fireworks and waterworks. To understand how these worked, a knowledge of the history of science is essential.

Traditional research on festivals has followed two main routes. One is to reconstruct the festival in the absence of full descriptive accounts. The second is to interpret the symbol ism of the written and visual productions presented on the occasion of the festival in terms of political and social signifi cance. Following yet extending these established modes, the essays in these two volumes are based on lectures given at Pennsylvania State University in 1987 and 1988, and aug mented by an additional six essays and a "Bibliography of the Literature of Triumph." Focusing on triumphal cere monies and theater, most of the contributions discuss the art and architecture, both ephemeral and permanent, that was commissioned for the festivals in western Europe during the early modern period.

The first volume, Part 1: Triumphal Celebrations and the Rituals of Statecraft, deals mainly with Italian and Flemish festivals in the cities of Rome, Ferrara, Genoa, Ghent, Nurem berg, Bruges, and Antwerp. For art librarians it should be of special interest that the authors use a variety of sources? maps, plans, manuscript illuminations, prints, and archival documents?to show how the art, architecture, topographic features, and pageantry worked to illustrate and reinforce the power of the rulers. The first paper, by Loren Partridge and Randolph Starn, provides an introduction to a broadened un derstanding of the triumphal protocols, not just as specific events but as generalized motifs expressive of dominance and power.

Editor Barbara Wisch's study on the religious processions in Rome during the Holy Year of 1575 documents the sub stitution of religious ceremonies and theatrical pieces sup porting the Roman Catholic orthodoxy for the "food, sex and violence" of earlier carnivals and popular festivals. In re sponse to the appeal of the Catholic Church for pilgrims and penitents, hordes descended upon Rome and were cared for by the local confraternities, whose members functioned as innkeepers and tour guides. The article describes the figures,

costumes, tableaux, and processions, but is particularly inter

esting because it describes how the confraternities dealt with and really capitalized on the vast influx of pilgrims. Besides its lively accounts of foreign visitors, including four

Japanese princes, a special highlight of "Measured Friend ship, Calculated Pomp: The Ceremonial Welcomes of the Ve netian Republic," by Patricia Fortini Brown, is the many il lustrations of decorated festival barges, floats, and other

vessels. With reference to the Venetian employment of the city's salient natural resource, Brown describes how "the wa tery ambient was the single most striking feature that set apart Venetian receptions...." (p. 145).

Although it is an early example of triumphal architecture, the Arch of Honor designed c.1515 for the Hapsburg Emperor Maxmilian I is probably the most interesting example of ephemeral architecture since the arch was never built and the famous procession depicted in its woodcuts never took place. Larry Silver's article on the "Paper Pageants" deals with the importance of the festival books and prints as care fully managed publicity and "image politics" published to insure the ruler's lasting fame. The second volume is titled Part 2: Theatrical Spectacle and

Spectacular Theatre. Using Italian examples, these essays on monuments, fountains, theater architecture, processions, and

performances treat the design and execution of these spec tacular features and special effects. In the first article, Creigh ton Gilbert discusses how the idea of size, in the sense of the colossal, can change the subject and the reception of a work of art.

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