Week 1 Seminar: Two piles

Six reproductions, three securely attributed and three disputed, sorted cold before anyone says which is which.

22 February 2027

Before the seminar#

Nothing to prepare. Arriving with an untrained eye is the point of this seminar; every other week assumes you’ve read ahead.

In the seminar#

Six high-resolution reproductions, unlabelled: three from paintings with secure, uncontested attributions to Tang Yin, three from paintings currently disputed in the literature. Working alone first, then in pairs, sort them into “confident” and “not sure,” and write down the one feature that drove each call. Nobody’s sort is scored against the literature; what matters is whether you can name your own reasoning.

Afterwards#

Keep your sorted list and your notes. You’ll re-sort the same six reproductions in week 12, with everything the semester adds, and the seminar opens with how much (or how little) has changed.