MAY 2015

VOLUME 46 - NUMBER 4

In the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing is a gilt-bronze musical clock fitted with a calligraphy-writing automaton. Made in the West and presented to the Qianlong emperor in the late 18th century, this mechanical marvel is the subject of Lis Jung Lu’s article, in which she traces its possible provenance and art-historical context. Shih Ching-fei focuses on an equally mysterious object in the National Palace Museum, Taipei—a hundred-layered lathe-turned goblet, probably from Europe. These objects, along with an Edo period world map compiled from Japanese, Chinese and Western sources, discussed by Richard A. Pegg, provide us with insights into early diplomacy, trade and the transmission of knowledge across cultures.

Meanwhile, Sascha Priewe and Heechung Yang introduce striking new features of the British Museum’s newly renovated Korean galleries. And, in the third article in his series on East Turkestan battle paintings, Niklas Leverenz compares a painting fragment with a copperplate engraving of the same scene. Steven P. Gaskin presents his thoughts on serpentine waves on Yuan blue-and-white, with particular reference to the David vases.

In other features, Regina Krahl reviews Adam T. Kessler’s Song Blue and White Porcelain on the Silk Road, Charlotte Chang visits the Yoshitomo Nara show at Asia Society Hong Kong Center, and Melissa Carlson comments on the implications of censorship in modern and contemporary Burmese art.

FEATURES
Lis Jung Lu. The ‘Mechanical Brush’: The Calligrapher Android in the Palace Museum, Beijing
Shih Ching-fei. A Hundred-layered Goblet from the Western Ocean
Richard A. Pegg. A New World View: Early 19th Century Approaches to Mapmaking in Japan
Sascha Priewe and Heechung Yang. A New Look for the BM’s Korea Foundation Gallery
Niklas Leverenz. The Battle of Qurman: A Third Fragment of the 1760 Qianlong Imperial Painting
Steven P. Gaskin. The David Vases: Considering Serpentine Waves on Yuan Blue-and-White
PREVIEWS & REVIEWS
Regina Krahl. Book Review: Song Blue and White Porcelain on the Silk Road. Studies in Asian Art and Archaeology
Charlotte Chang. Exhibition Review: ‘Life is Only One: Yoshitomo Nara’
COMMENTARY
Melissa Carlson. Art versus Artifice: Contemplating Burmese Contemporary Art