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Visual Sources

Blair, Sheila; McCausland, Shane

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Authors

Sheila Blair



Contributors

Michal Biran
Editor

Hodong Kim
Editor

Abstract

An integrated essay, co-authored with Sheila Blair, on visual sources for all the regions of the Mongol empire. This chapter provides an overview of the copious material production that occurred during the centuries when the Mongols dominated much of Asia. Co-authored, the essay offers a fully integrated study that focuses on common themes rather than regional differences. It begins by assessing the sources available for study in order to underscore some of the problems in using them. It then shows that the process of commodity and exchange across the Mongol domains resulted in a shared material culture and in the emergence of a new visual language marked by three features: an interest in perspective and the opening up of space, the cultivation of monumental size in which importance was demonstrated through scale, and a concern for allover surface patterning, often with raised, pierced, or multilevel carving.

Citation

Blair, S., & McCausland, S. (2023). Visual Sources. In M. Biran, & H. Kim (Eds.), Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire (1349-1398). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316337424.045

Publication Date Jul 1, 2023
Deposit Date Apr 17, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 27, 2024
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 1349-1398
Book Title Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire
ISBN 9781316337424
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316337424.045
Keywords Yuan, Ilkhanate, cloth-of-gold, printing, blue-and-white porcelains, Sufis, “Little Cities of God”, bughtaq, paiza, handscrolls, lusterware, women

Files

SB SMcC combined essay - 2020.pdf (438 Kb)
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Copyright Statement
This is the version of the chapter accepted for publication in Biran, Michal and Kim, Hodong, (eds.), Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1349-1398 (2023). Re-use is subject to the publisher’s terms and conditions.





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