Scholars Series | Genji Painting and the Power of the Panorama
with Melissa McCormick

About
The Tale of Genji (11th century), often called the world’s first novel, was one of the most popular painting subjects in the history of Japanese art, generating a tradition that has lasted over one thousand years.

Kicking off NGV’s Scholars Series in 2024, Harvard University’s Melissa McCormick discusses the moment in Japanese history, from the sixteenth-century onward, when these representations changed from small-scale illustrations to depictions on screens and architectural interiors that physically immersed viewers in the world of the tale.

Speaker
Melissa McCormick is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Japanese Art and Culture at Harvard University, and a leading expert on East Asian art working at the intersection of art, literature, and history. She is the author of Tosa Mitsunobu and the Small Scroll in Medieval Japan (2009), The Tale of Genji: A Visual Companion (2018), and numerous articles in both English and Japanese that reinterpret literary artifacts. She has lectured around the world, including guest professorships at universities in Brazil, Japan, and Switzerland. In 2019 she co-curated the international loan exhibition The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her research on illustrated manuscripts and the history of the book is featured in her free, online Edx course, Japanese Books from Manuscript to Print.

Scholars Series
Scholars Series is a stream of in-depth presentations by experts in art and art history that uncover the stories behind works from the NGV Collection. Find out more