The Cloud Collector

More about the book

Inspired by the wonderful objects that have punctuated his long career as a scholar and expert in Chinese antiques, Marcus Flacks melds the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of a Western aesthetic education with a lifetime spent in the study and appreciation of China’s literati culture. The result is a richly textured fictional world populated by beleaguered courtiers, reclusive scholars and other-worldly creatures. Reality and fable, antiquity and modernity and Chinese and Western thought and aesthetics combine in a heady mixture that offers the modern reader a multitude of delights, surprises and opportunities for reflection. An inspired selection of images, ranging from Roman statues and Renaissance paintings to early Western photography, provides a beguiling visual context for these singular tales.