Chinese Ancestral Portraits in Art History: Tracing from Confucian Thought to Iconology

Ung Vai Meng, a contemporary Macao artist and Scholar, has dedicated over two decades to the study of Chinese ancestor portraits since 1997. Chinese ancestor portraits represent an important branch of Chinese figurative painting and constitute a unique genre with profound sociocultural implications. These portraits serve a solemn ritual function, acting as the focal point of ancestral worship within Chinese families.They have developed into a relatively self-contained system of portraiture, widely practiced across regions and generations across China.

In this Talk, Prof Ung will share with us his interdisciplinary research on Chinese ancestor portraits engaging perspectives from costume studies, iconography, sociology, and color theory. He will also discuss ancestor portraits as a distinctive visual and ritual heritage of China, exploring their philosophical foundations in Confucian doctrine and fundamental principles, while also investigating their substantial impact on the evolutionary trajectory of Chinese art history.