Presented by: ZHeather Clydesdale, Santa Clara University
Date: Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Location: Henderson Room, Michigan League


Abstract:
A wall painting found in a tomb at Dingjiazha (丁家闸) in western China and dated to the early Six Dynasties (220-589) is wrapped in a mystery of identity and motive.  A woman, stark naked, bends in profile before the base of a tree with an expansive and leafy canopy. In the branches above her, a peculiar monster gestures fitfully. While scholars agree that the woman is probably making an offering to she (社), the local earth deity, the nature of the monster and reason for the woman’s nudity remain a puzzle. Archaeologists have dated the tomb, which is in Gansu (甘肃) province, to the fourth or fifth centuries, and a contemporaneous record from eastern China suggests that the scene illustrates a tragic incident involving the birth of a deformed baby and an appeal for relief from drought through an ancient practice of ritual exposure. Knitting together textual evidence along with a close analysis of the painting reveals how the woman, tree and agile little monster are all inextricably connected to one another and the tomb program. It also sheds light on how superstition, folklore, and associated practices can seem to fall out of use, but actually go underground and, like a rhizome, sprout over vast distances and through centuries in times of deprivation.


About the speaker:
Heather Clydesdale (柯玉珊) is a lecturer in the Department of Art and Art History at Santa Clara University in the Bay Area, where she teaches courses on the Silk Roads as well as modern Asian art. Her research focuses on cultural exchanges and artistic innovations on China’s northwestern frontier. She holds a Ph.D. in art history and archaeology from Columbia University and wrote her dissertation on third and early fourth century tombs in the Hexi Corridor.