Download or read book The Figurative Works of Chen Hongshou (1599-1652) written by Tamara Heimarck Bentley and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2012 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the importance of Chen Hongshou (1599-1652) as an artist and scholar of the late Ming period, until now no full length study in English has focused on his work. Author Tamara H. Bentley takes a broadly interdisciplinary approach, treating Chen's oeuvre in relation to literary themes and economic changes, and linking these larger concerns to visual analyses. In so doing, Bentley sheds new light not only on Chen, but also on an important cultural moment in the first half of the seventeenth century, when Chinese scholar artists began to direct their work towards anonymous public markets.