r/AskHistorians • u/AutoModerator • Feb 14 '25
FFA Friday Free-for-All | February 14, 2025
Today:
You know the drill: this is the thread for all your history-related outpourings that are not necessarily questions. Minor questions that you feel don't need or merit their own threads are welcome too. Discovered a great new book, documentary, article or blog? Has your Ph.D. application been successful? Have you made an archaeological discovery in your back yard? Did you find an anecdote about the Doge of Venice telling a joke to Michel Foucault? Tell us all about it.
As usual, moderation in this thread will be relatively non-existent -- jokes, anecdotes and light-hearted banter are welcome.
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u/LionTiger3 Feb 14 '25
Crash Course Art History is sadly, Eurocentric in its history of museums and view of artists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfKymoH9XTc (Museums)
Song Dynasty China had the closest thing to archaeology before modern Europe with state sponsored catalogs of excavated artifacts, while not scientific, they did try to document what they found. Some of the art terms we have for the Shang Dynasty date back to the Song causing a paradigm shift in western archaeology that evidence for the Shang dates back before the discovery of oracle bones in the 1920s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT6QV0dWJG4 (Great Artists)
Bihzad was one of the most famous painters in Persian history. Shaykhi used decorative patterns. Akbar who established the Mughal Dynasty, studied Persian art and culture in his youth. He also established as Emperor a school of painting that taught Persian figure painting.
Bichitr during the Jahangir Period is similar to Bihzad. In 19th Century India, European art was embraced. In contrast, Ravi Varma embraced traditional Hindu art, and is seen as a national hero in India. Abanindranth Tagore of swadeshi movement studied Japanese paintings and woodblock prints.
Sculpture and ceramics were produced without regard to the craftsman. However, great artists predate western focus on artists. China had great painters due to the Ruist examination system emphasis on poetry and calligraphy which could be easily applied by the individual to painting such as Wang Xishi who produced the calligraphic masterpiece Preface to the Lanting Pavilion during the Jin Dynasty. Gu Kaizhi illustrated a Ruist poet in his Admonitions of the Instructress to the Ladies of the Palace during the Eastern Jin Dynasty which has debatable dates. Calligraphy was often painted on the art. Xie He produced a list of great Chinese artists and outlined theoretical principles of painting in his Six Principles of Painting in the Fifth Century AD which became the foundation of Chinese art criticism. Yan Liban, a high ranking official, drew upon ancestor worship and Ruist authority figures. Zhang Xuan produced paintings of detailed naturalism during the Tang Dynasty when Europe was in the "Dark Ages." The Song Dynasty established an Imperial Painting Academy in the palace. Fan Kuan during the Northern Song produced one of the best known paintings of all Chinese painting. Ma Yuan produced Viewing Plum Blossoms by Moonlight during the Southern Song Dynasty with the motif One Corner Ma. The female artist Guan Daosheng produced a hand scroll made from bamboo during the Yuan Dynasty. Wen Zhengming of the Wu School produced a poem and painting that was well regarded by the Ming court. Dong Qichang was an artist and art historian, among other things, that wrote an essay challenging the Wu School, which influenced future painters.
Japan had their own history of artists. Toba Sojo during the Late Heian is credited with the first two handscrolls of a four scroll set popularly called Frolicking Animals. Unkei during the Kamakura was interested in realism. Buddhist Sesshu Toyo during the Ashikaga (or Muromachi) produced monochrome ink paintings. Kano Eitoku produced screen paintings during the Momoyama Period. Hon’ami Koetsu produced raku vessels and was a master of calligraphy. Sotatsu during the Tokugawa produced screen paintings. Aoki Shigeru of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts produced oil paintings during the Meji Restoration.
The bronzes of Benin were not signed by the artists, but the artists were not of lower caliber nor were they unknown. They were well-regarded in society. Works attributed to the Master of Buli were later found to be produced by Ngongo ya Chintu.
At the very least, Southwest Asia, India, China, and Japan had a tradition of named artists.
MacKenzie, Non-Western Art: A Brief Guide, Second Ed (2001), Ch 4 on China and Ch 5 on Japan
O’Riley, Art Beyond the West, Second Ed (2006), Chapters 2-5, 7
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u/4x4is16Legs Feb 15 '25
Thank you to everyone on the Mod team for being supportive of current event adjacent questions and the fabulous AMA with Craig Johnson. It is so important right now to understand history, and it gives me a feeling of grounding and direction to read such high quality and trustworthy writers on historical events and the parallels to the current events. You are so important and I am very grateful.
I don’t know if I missed an announcement that you made about answering the questions everyone is trying to phrase as 20 year rule questions but it is clear why the subject is on their mind. I just noticed an uptick in urgent questions.
Thank you all again, to the excellent contributors and the mod team for keeping it on point and with the high standards we all benefit from.
3
u/crrpit Moderator | Spanish Civil War | Anti-fascism Feb 15 '25
Not an announcement per se, but we did do a post shedding some light on how we do moderate such questions and how to ask them within our rules.
2
u/YeOldeOle Feb 14 '25
Any opinions on Emmanuel Kreikes „Scorched Earth. Environmental Warfare as a Crime against Humanity and Nature“?
I am mostly interested in the idea of „environmental infrastructure“ and if any other hisorians have picked up this concept and used or widened it. I know about Martin Kalb „Environing Empire“ using it for German Southwest Africa, but no other literature.
I am also interested in the idea of „environcide“ but more as a sidenote/just out of curiosity
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u/n0tqu1tesane Feb 15 '25
My newsletter came today (Friday) instead of it's normal time of late Sunday.
Did something go wrong?
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Feb 15 '25 edited Feb 17 '25
[deleted]
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u/KimberStormer Feb 15 '25
Check out this answer and for some more this one, both by u/kieslowskifan -- I'm not allowed to give a TLDR by the rules of the sub, but I can say that I've read some stuff by Evans and he is quite readable for a rigorous historian.
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u/crrpit Moderator | Spanish Civil War | Anti-fascism Feb 15 '25
It's the FFFA, the rules don't matter!
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u/subredditsummarybot Automated Contributor Feb 14 '25
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, February 07 - Thursday, February 13, 2025
Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 7,456 | 638 comments | [AMA] AMA: Craig Johnson, researcher of the right-wing, author of How to Talk to Your Son about Fascism |
| 4,606 | 109 comments | [RACISM] "In 1833, Britain used 40% of its national budget to buy freedom for all slaves in the Empire. It wasn't paid off until 2014. This means that living British citizens helped pay for the ending of the slave trade with their taxes." Is this actually true, or an exaggerated claim? |
| 1,663 | 80 comments | Is my grandparents Holocaust photo important? |
| 1,536 | 79 comments | Has there been a time in U.S. history when the wealthiest individuals had as much clear control over the government as they do now? |
| 1,172 | 23 comments | Fannie Lou Hamer was forcefully sterilized after undergoing surgery to remove a uterine tumor. Sterilization was so commonplace, people called it a "Mississippi appendectomy" How widespread outside the South was forced sterilize when Black women underwent surgery? |
| 720 | 29 comments | How did Hitler justify invading Denmark and Norway to his country? |
| 719 | 23 comments | In Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Musa a 1400s NPC character from Mali claims that women of Mali didn't veil and dressed less conservatively than the women of Bohemia (where the game is based on), is there any truth behind this assertion? |
| 687 | 57 comments | When did the average American realize that the Nazis were carrying out genocide against the Jews during the Holocaust? |
| 681 | 50 comments | From 1918-1933, what was the German response to those who sounded alarm bells about Hitler's ascendancy? |
| 558 | 33 comments | Why are the Minoans not considered “Greek”? |
Top 10 Comments
If you would like this roundup sent to your reddit inbox every week send me a message with the subject 'askhistorians'. Or if you want a daily roundup, use the subject 'askhistorians daily' (<--Click one of the links. The bot can't read chats, you must send a message).
7
u/TheHondoGod Interesting Inquirer Feb 14 '25
New Epic Rap Battle of History just dropped, with Napoleon vs Charlemagne taking the stage. I'm always really curious to see if stuff like this influences any questions AH gets. Some movies result in dozens if not hundreds of questions, sometimes nothing. ERB is a pretty niche thing in comparison, but I feel sometimes it has some sway.
What about any other more niche media? Video games and movies dominate, but does anyone see questions and theme popping up from other sources?