TY - JOUR
T1 - Hidden in plain sight
T2 - An art-historical response to janet gyatso's being human in a buddhist world: An intellectual history of medicine in early modern Tibet (2015)
AU - Linrothe, Rob
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Asia Society.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - This is a review article of Janet Gyatso's 2015 award-winning book, Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet. The art-historical aspects of the book-mainly confined to the first chapter, "Reading Paintings, Painting the Medical, Medicalizing the State"and based on a perceptive art-historical reading of a set of medical paintings and its copies- had yet to be reviewed by an academically- trained art historian. This review underscores the fine arthistorical insights deserving the attention of art historians working in parallel contexts of the often tense relationship between religious and empirical epistemologies. At the same time, the evaluation of certain readings of the visual record lead to suggested revisions in the support they provide to Gyatso's primary argument. In addition, other precedents of depictions "from life"in Tibetan art history are offered to help contextualize claims of originality or uniqueness. Finally, an analysis is presented of less formal, freehand painting versus more formalized, iconometric execution, calibrated with vernacular subject matter versus iconographically predetermined themes. Both of the painting modes and subject types are combined in the painting set analyzed by Gyatso supporting her assessment of the innovation of the artists selected by the patron, Desi Sangyé Gyatso (1653-1705).
AB - This is a review article of Janet Gyatso's 2015 award-winning book, Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet. The art-historical aspects of the book-mainly confined to the first chapter, "Reading Paintings, Painting the Medical, Medicalizing the State"and based on a perceptive art-historical reading of a set of medical paintings and its copies- had yet to be reviewed by an academically- trained art historian. This review underscores the fine arthistorical insights deserving the attention of art historians working in parallel contexts of the often tense relationship between religious and empirical epistemologies. At the same time, the evaluation of certain readings of the visual record lead to suggested revisions in the support they provide to Gyatso's primary argument. In addition, other precedents of depictions "from life"in Tibetan art history are offered to help contextualize claims of originality or uniqueness. Finally, an analysis is presented of less formal, freehand painting versus more formalized, iconometric execution, calibrated with vernacular subject matter versus iconographically predetermined themes. Both of the painting modes and subject types are combined in the painting set analyzed by Gyatso supporting her assessment of the innovation of the artists selected by the patron, Desi Sangyé Gyatso (1653-1705).
KW - Desi Sangyé Gyatso
KW - Iconometry
KW - Science and religion
KW - Tibetan medicine
KW - Vernacular
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U2 - 10.1215/00666637-8620384
DO - 10.1215/00666637-8620384
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85106218708
SN - 0066-6637
VL - 70
SP - 225
EP - 244
JO - Archives of Asian Art
JF - Archives of Asian Art
IS - 2
ER -