Professor Peter Sturman (Professor Departments of History of Art and Architecture, East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies Chair, Committee on Committees University of California, Santa Barbara)

The sudden emergence of Su Shi’s Old Tree, Rock, and Bamboo into the public light a few years past provided a rare opportunity to examine closely this famous scroll that includes Su Shi’s painting and Mi Fu’s calligraphy. With the focus on the scroll’s authenticity, there was renewed interest and disagreement regarding the scroll’s seals. In this lecture, it will be demonstrated that further examination of the seals leads to a rare opportunity to reconstruct not only the later history of this famous scroll containing Su’s and Mi’s “twin treasures,” but rare insight into the scroll’s making and reception.