Beyond Verisimilitude: Unscrolling Facsimiles of Chinese Masterpieces

In the discipline of Chinese Art History, facsimiles have long been shrouded in misconceptions and treated with skepticism. By exploring issues beyond their mere replication of original works of art, it becomes clear that there is much more to facsimiles than meets the eye. Historical context, methods of production, function and use, relative quality and structures of value, and questions of their relationship to the ‘aura’ of the original artwork are among the methods for understanding facsimiles. This special edition journal, published in collaboration with the History of Art Students’ Association (HASA) at the University of Toronto (UofT), serves a dual purpose both as a platform for research development and as an accompaniment to exhibition curation. It will continue the research begun by undergraduates at the UofT on Chinese painting facsimiles supported by the special facsimile collections of the Cheng Yu Tung Library, and will complement an exhibition of these…