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What is a historical analogy? For example, Elkins argues that 13th-century Chinese art and 15th-century Italian art share similarities. This similarity is based on the perception of historical forms. 13th-century Chinese art was pioneered by painters such as Zhao Mengfu and Qian Xuan. To them, the Northern Song dynasty was a distant and precious past, while the recent Southern Song dynasty held little value; thus, they chose to sever ties with the Southern Song and systematically create their own art styles modeled after the older Northern Song. In this sense, the art of 13th-century China under the Yuan dynasty bears considerable resemblance to the art of 15th-century Italian Renaissance. Both deliberately rejected recent cultural traditions and recalled the highly esteemed “ancient.” Notably, their “veneration of antiquity” was not “imitation of antiquity.” Artists in both the East and the West, from different historical periods, were aware of the many stylistic differences in antiquity and could selectively adopt various styles according to personal preference. From this, Elkins draws a conclusion: China had already entered a period that could be termed “postmodernism”—particularly evident in a series of increasingly individualized styles and schools—approximately 250 years earlier than the West.
Following this historical perspective, the many examples of artists and artworks presented in the book are profoundly illuminating. Consider again Elkins’ interpretations of several representative Yuan dynasty painters. He believes that their works contain, to varying degrees, elements reminiscent of 20th-century stylistic movements. This implies that they once acknowledged the perfectionism of similar periods but held it in contempt; consequently, they sought to distill, exaggerate, and simplify techniques that had previously been suppressed.