“Evaluations of Song Dynasty Painters of Renown” and Its Place in the Chinese Connoisseur Tradition

Abstract

This paper offers a detailed description of the “Evaluations of the Song Dynasty Painters of Renown,” one of the earliest accounts of Chinese artists who were active between the late 10th and the first half of the 11th centuries. The paper first describes the structure of the text and the content of the artists’ biographies. It then addresses issues of authorship and date, challenging the traditional attribution to Liu Daochun in favor of Fu Jiaying, a lesser-known Song Dynasty personage. The paper finally highlights the text’s approach to the classification of artists, and places the text in the broader context of the connoisseur tradition in China.