In art history research, the term “ladies’ painting” or “beauty painting” has long been used to express paintings with women as the theme, but such a term not only came out relatively late, but also has a certain orientation of painting and criticism in the process of its formation, and cannot encompass all the paintings centered around “women”. However, such a term is not only relatively recent in its formation, but also carries a certain orientation of painting and criticism, and is unable to encompass all paintings centered on women. According to art historian Wu Hung, feminine space denotes an actual or imaginary space, which is perceived and represented as a woman. A feminine space is a spatial entity—an artificial world comprised of landscape, vegetation, architecture, atmosphere, climate, color, fragrance, light, and sound, as well as selected human occupants and their activities.

This book traces the construction of this space in traditional Chinese art and visual culture (including representations of such space in literature and theater) and the social/political implications of this constructive process. Focusing on “feminine space”, the author compiles the development of female-themed paintings at various stages of history from the Warring States period to the Ming and Qing dynasties-from the portrait bricks of women at the Wuliang Ancestral Temple to the North and South Dynasties’ Luoshen Fu, from the self-expression of famous prostitutes in greenhouses to the Twelve Beauties, a painting of idealized beauties, with graphic representations of women. Twelve Beauties, we present the different presentations of “women” in various painting scenes and eras in an illustrated manner, reconstructing the original works to which they belonged; combining factors such as art criticism and the context of the era, we will explore the mutual influence of the aesthetic and commercial values behind the works, and then consider the significance of female-themed paintings in the social, religious, and cultural environments. In this way, we will consider the significance of female paintings in social, religious and cultural environments.

Wu Hong, born in Leshan, Sichuan Province in 1945, studied at the Art History Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 1963, received his Ph.D. in Art History and Anthropology from Harvard University in 1987, and is currently a tenured professor in the Department of Asian Art at the University of Chicago, where he founded the Center for the Study of East Asian Art in 2002, and served as an advisor to the curator of the Smart Museum of Art in the same year. He is also involved in contemporary art research and exhibition planning. His major publications include Wu Liang Ancestral Temple: The Ideology of Ancient Chinese Portrait Art (1989), Monumentality in Ancient Chinese Art and Architecture (1995), Re-screening: The Medium and Expression of Chinese Painting (1996), and Fine Arts in Ceremony: The History of Ancient Chinese Art in Wuhong (2005), etc. He is also the director of the Center for the Study of East Asian Art at the University of Chicago.