Speaker: Nancy Steinhardt, Professor of East Asian Art and Curator of Chinese Art, University of Pennsylvania

Among approximately four hundred buildings that survive in China from the period of Mongolian rule, 1271-1368, about one percent have features that sharply distinguish them from the rest: a pagoda, a minaret, an observatory, a mausoleum, and rock-carved architecture are examples. The pagoda, minaret, and observatory are put forth in any study that seeks to prove the infiltration of foreign architecture into China during the Mongol century.
We are pleased to invite Professor Nancy Steinhardt, Professor of East Asian Art at UPenn and Curator of Chinese Art at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, to present part of her work on the narrative of Chinese architecture during Mongolian rule.
This lecture, “Convergence and Entanglement: Reconsidering the Mongol Architectural Narrative” re-examines these buildings and their relation in the scope of Chinese architecture. The five buildings featured in this talk calls for a reconsideration of the impact of Mongolian rule on Chinese architecture, guided by the themes of convergence and entanglement. The lecture comes as part of CAMLab Embodied Architecture project, endeavoring to highlight the work of Chinese architects.

Nancy Steinhardt is Professor of East Asian Art and Curator of Chinese Art at the University of Pennsylvania where she has taught since 1982. She received her PhD at Harvard in 1981 and was a Junior Fellow at Harvard from 1978-81. Steinhardt taught at Bryn Mawr from 1981-1982. She has broad research interests in the art and architecture of China and China’s border regions, particularly problems that result from the interaction between Chinese art and that of peoples to the North, Northeast, and Northwest.

Presented via Zoom
Registration Required
Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ORWTbEjCRr6ByTiAXdGwDg