Bidspirit auction | THE SPRING PALACE Erotic paintings from

THE SPRING PALACE Erotic paintings from China - France, Paris-Musées Association, 2006.  208 pp., il., 27.2 by 21.5 cm Ex-Library book, but otherwise in very good condition with some wear to the soft cover. Chinese erotic painting remains an underappreciated and understudied genre. The prevalence of late, poor quality works among the surviving examples has convinced too many Chinese art historians that it is unworthy of their attention. Quite a few books of reproductions have appeared, some with substantial accompanying texts, but no full-fledged art historical description of the genre has yet been published. An exhibition at the Chernuska Museum in 2006 examined the genre in some detail from various perspectives. Erotic painting in China has a long history. Several drawings and relief patterns on tomb tiles as well as references in literature indicate that it originated at least during the Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 220).  An important and unexplored aspect of the place of Chinese erotic painting in Chinese culture is the question of how the Chinese themselves viewed and wrote about it. It is perhaps a surprising fact that their extant commentary on it is almost entirely negative.  French Edition. Rare to find.