Smithsonian Libraries

ARLIS/NA Art Librarians visit the Libraries

Last month the Smithsonian Libraries hosted the fall meeting of the Washington DC, Maryland & Virginia Chapter of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA). Close to 30 art and architecture librarians from the region came for a day of learning about some of the initiatives spearheaded by the libraries balanced with an exhibition and library tour at the Freer/Sackler.

 

 

Erin Rushing, the Digital Images Librarian and Social Media Co-Chair for SIL gave a presentation about the Libraries’ social media initiatives. Recently a working group was organized in order to coordinate SIL’s outreach through social media. Social media gives SIL the opportunity to connect directly with SIL’s users, fans, and friends, as well as to connect with each other while allowing staff and users to easily and quickly share information, generate ideas, and participate in discussions.  With initial focus on the blog, Facebook, and Twitter, strategies and goals for each platform are being developed adapting what works best. Since this group effort is still new and evaluation is still being developed, the group is just beginning to discover what works best and what our users like and respond to. Ultimately the Libraries hopes to promote engagement and to increase the tools that we can serve its users.

Doug Litts, the Branch Librarian for the American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery Library talked about the various digital projects that the Smithsonian Libraries is pursuing with emphasis on the art resources that are made available to researchers worldwide, such as the Galaxy of Images, the Art and Artists Files database, the Edward F. Caldwell Collection, and the Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web. He also discussed the Library’s digitization of history, art, and culture material and uploading to the Internet Archive. Doug also discussed other initiatives that SIL is investigating, such as discovery services which would provide greater access to the wide range of resources the Libraries have available online; and the investigation of the purchase of ebooks.

 

 

In the afternoon, the group was met by Kathryn Phillips and Yue Shu, two librarians from the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Library. Kathryn gave a tour and history of the library with emphasis on Freer’s dedication to and continuous support of libraries and books. Shu provided a look at a variety of Chinese books books related to the Qing dynasty in China that reflected a tour by the museum archivist of the exhibition Power|Play: China's Empress Dowager. Kathryn and Shu also talked about their interests and how they came to work in the library.

In all the day provided the opportunity to meet with colleagues, share ideas and programs, and to think about the future in art librarianship.

 

The Ten-Thousand "Ren" Palace Wall

A book held in the Freer-Sackler Library, Qi Lu Wen Hua, describes historic sites and cultural relics from the ancient states of Qi and Lu, which was the home state of the Chinese sage Confucius.

This image from the book shows part of the ancestral temple complex of Confucius's family in Chufu including four Chinese characters written in calligraphy above the wall gate. The characters shown, "Wan Ren Gong Qiang", are a reference to an interesting event reported in the collection of sayings known as the Analects of Confucius.

The story goes that a Lu official once said that Confucius's disciple Zi Gong was more virtuous than his master. On hearing this, Zi Gong said that if you compared each of them to a wall, he would only reached to the shoulder height and therefore it was very easy to see his virtues. However his master's wall was many "ren" (a Chinese measure word) high, so that only if you were admitted through the gate could you see the beauty of the ancestral temple inside, or the riches of the officials there. Being that the Lu official hadn't been admitted through the gate, of course he couldn't know the full extent of Confucius' virtues.

The four characters on the wall "Wan Ren Gong Qiang," which might be translated as "ten-thousand ren palace wall", therefore refer metaphorically to the towering height of Confucius's virtues.

Qi Lu Wen Hua, the Analects, and many other books related to Confucius and his life and times may all be found at the Freer-Sackler Library, where they are available for public use.

The Fight on the Roof of the Horyūkakū

For the 2002-2003 exhibition of Japanese prints in the Anne van Biema Collection titled Masterful Illusions, the Freer-Sackler Gallery produced a promotional bookmark using an image of a print by Yoshitoshi, "Hōryūkaku ni Ryōyū Ugoku" or "Two Heroes in Battle at Horyūkakū." Materials in the Freer-Sackler Library make it possible to research some of the background of the print, as well as other prints depicting the same story.

by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892)(S2004.3.317a-b) 

 
  by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1739-1861) (left) 

The scene is from the book Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (The Chronicles of the Eight Dog Heroes of the Satomi Clan of Nansō), a 106 volume work written between 1814 and 1842 by Takizawa Bakin (1767-1848). The title of the Hakkenden refers to eight heroes, each with the word "dog" (Inu) in his name, all of whom are the magical offspring of a dog and a princess. Each of the eight represents a traditional Confucian virtue in the story, which is set in the fifteenth century. Two of the heroes, Inuzuka Shino (on the roof peak), and Inukai Kempachi, are shown in the included images confronting each other on the Hōryū Tower of the Koga Castle. Kempachi has been ordered to capture Shino, who has been falsely accused of spying. In the fight that follows, they both fall from the tower into the Tone River below, survive, and discover they are brothers. 

 

by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1739-1861)

The Hakkenden is an example of a Japanese fiction genre known as yomihon, or a book for reading (as opposed to viewing pictures) that developed in the eighteenth century. Yomihon were frequently set in Japan or China's past, drawing from classical themes and history. Dramatic scenes from the Hakkenden were frequently used in kabuki plays, which were the subject of prints. The author of the Hakkenden, Bakin, himself purchased a copy of the triptych print by Kuniyoshi shown above at the right. 

In addition to many books on Japanese prints, and the works of the artists Kuniyoshi and Yoshitoshi, the Freer-Sackler Library has in its collections the book Hakkenden no sekai or "World of the Hakkenden" which is is entirely devoted to prints, paintings and other artistic works depicting scenes and characters from the Hakkenden.

—Mike Smith

Selected Bibliography: 

Clark, Timothy. Kuniyoshi : from the Arthur R. Miller collection. London : Royal Academy of Arts ; New York : Distributed in the U.S. by Harry N. Abrams, c2009, p. 63.

Early modern Japanese literature : an anthology, 1600-1900. New York : Columbia University Press, c2002, pp. 885-909.

Hakkenden no sekai. [Matsuyama-shi] : Ehime-ken Bijutsukan ; [Chiba-shi] : Chiba-shi Bijutsukan ; [Tokyo] : Bijutsukan Renraku Kyogikai, 2008.

Schaap, Robert. Heroes & ghosts : Japanese prints by Kuniyoshi, 1797-1861. Leiden : Hotei Publishing, c1998, p. 116.

Yonemura, Ann. Masterful illusions : Japanese prints in the Anne Van Biema collection. Seattle : University of Washington Press ; Washington, D.C. : Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 2002, pp. 248-249.

Ancient Chinese Bronzes at the Freer Gallery

The Chinese sage Confucius (551-478 B.C.E.) greatly esteemed the founders of the Zhou Dynasty, who lived five hundred years before. This is reflected in several of his sayings, including, "How weak I have become. For a long time I have not dreamed about the Duke of Zhou."

In 1046 B.C.E., the Zhou clan, led by their king Wu, had overthrown the corrupted Shang Dynasty and took power. When King Wu died only three years later, his brother, the Duke of Zhou, preserved the Zhou kingdom until his young nephew, Wu's son, reached maturity and could assume responsibility as King Cheng.

Bronze vessels in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art are a link back to the early Zhou Dynasty. The vessel pictured at left was acquired by the Freer Gallery in 1930 and has almost matching inscriptions inside the cover and on the bottom. Because the inscriptions record that the vessel was cast for Nie Ling, a Maker of Books at the royal court of King Cheng, and mention services performed by Nie Ling for the Duke of Zhou's son, the vessel is sometimes called the Ling yi. Edward L. Shaughnessy's Sources of Western Zhou History: Inscribed Bronze Vessels notes that

"the inscription on the Ling yi immediately attracted the interest of Chinese paleographers, sparking a debate that led in great measure to the development of the periodization methodology in use today. On the one hand, mention of the famous Duke of Zhou, fourth son of King Wen (r. 1099/56-1050) and interim head of state after the sudden death of his elder brother King Wu (r. 1049/45 - 1043), suggested to some scholars that this vessel must date to the beginning of the dynasty, probably to the reign of King Cheng (r. 1042/35-1006). On the other hand, other scholars have argued that the vessel must have been cast at least two generations later, during the reign of King Zhao (r. 977/75-957), since the inscription commemorates certain ritual activity taking place in a 'Kang gong', presumably a temple dedicated to the then-deceased fourth king of the dynasty, King Kang (r. 1005/3-978). Because of the important role this debate has played in the history of Western Zhou bronze studies, and because the debate, which still simmers, influences the periodization of a wide range of other early Western Zhou bronzes, it seems appropriate here to review the main issues ..."

Another bronze vessel in the Freer collection with links to the early Zhou is the Taibao gui. The inscription on this vessel commemorates the role of the elder half brother of King Wu and the Duke of Zhou, the Grand Protector or Taibao, in helping to suppress a rebellion against the newly established Zhou Dynasty.

The Freer-Sackler Library contains many useful resources for research on Chinese bronzes and inscriptions on them. For example, the multivolume set Jin Wen Zong Ji reproduces inscriptions from bronzes at the Freer and other museums around the world. These resources are all available for public use at the Library.

—Mike Smith

Images, top to bottom: The Ling yi, Lid of the Ling yi with inscription, The Taibao gui

Selected Bibliography:

Pope, John Alexander, Rutherford John Gettens, James Cahill, and Noel Barnard. The Freer Chinese Bronzes, Volume 1 Catalogue. Washington, D.C.: The Freer Gallery of Art, 1967.

Shaughnessy, Edward L. "The Role of Grand Protector Shi in the Consolidation of the Zhou Conquest," Ars Orientalis 19 (1989): 51-77.

Shaughnessy, Edward L. Sources of Western Zhou History: Inscribed Bronze Vessels. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991.