Donors of Longmen is a fascinating study of one of China's most important Buddhist cave sites, Longmen. Despite Longmen's significance in medieval Buddhist art, a book-length Western-language study of this site has long been lacking. As the title of the book indicates, Amy McNair tackles Longmen from the perspective of its patrons and explores intersections between art, religion, and politics from the late fifth to the early eighth century (493–730). Because sponsorship was cut short after the political division of the Wei in 534, the period of greatest activity encompasses forty years under the Northern Wei and another century after Tang Taizong revived the court presence at Luoyang in 647.

When Luoyang was the Northern Wei capital, Longmen saw considerable Buddhist construction, and McNair's first three chapters examine crucial works of this era. Here, and in subsequent chapters, McNair presents accounts of iconographic and textual interpretations, woven into historical intrigues and religious narratives. Besides chapters on the Guyang and Binyang caves and Fengxian Monastery, whose patrons included members of the imperial families, McNair narrates the sponsorship of less frequently studied Tang satellite grottoes to include a wider array of patrons, featuring sangha donors, female palace officials, and devout court eunuchs. McNair reveals layers of history behind the choices of icons and how their selections served to garner merit, convert unbelievers, or edify the faithful. She addresses the engaging theme of imitation, in making replicas of Indian icons or copying an icon or program to draw associations with a former donor of higher status. A chapter on the cost of dedicatory shrines demonstrates how commissions were influenced by gender and status (e.g., the nun who disguised her status as a woman, pp. 57–58), or how their diverse positions sometimes shaped the descriptions of their expenditure in dedicatory inscriptions.

Given medieval China's complex political history and how extant material culture is largely limited to items of great expenditure, many Buddhist art studies relate the construction of these caves to members of the Northern Wei and Tang courts. The colossal Buddha at Fengxian Monastery, arguably Longmen's most iconic image, has well-documented ties to Empress Wu Zetian. Despite the dominance of the sociopolitical backdrop, McNair injects the voices of donors not just to uncover political motives behind sculptural constructions, but also to highlight patronage driven by the desire to earn karmic merit for the sponsor and beneficiary (pp. 155–56). Among the greatest contributions of McNair's book are the dedicatory inscriptions she mines to expose layers of religious and social motives behind the more direct discourse on image making. McNair selects inscriptions that show ties to historical figures and artistic constructions to explore and include in her appendix, although the nuances of emotion and aspiration that she draws from them, beyond the more common, rhetorical rationale for image making, make the reader wish that she had included more. She juxtaposes her readings with close examination of visual programs to argue for “intentionality,” not just to reveal meanings of stylistic and iconographic choices, but how these, along with the content of inscriptions “would have been immediately comprehensible to their contemporaries” (p. 4).

McNair's approach follows trends in patronage studies, synthesizing formal and iconographic details with more interdisciplinary concerns to reveal the intentions of diverse groups. Her focus on donors and inscriptions indicates an interest in reconstructing the social parameters of these projects, but despite the complex motives behind the choice of icons uncovered by McNair, faith prevails as the dominant narrative in the construction of cave temples at Longmen. While McNair alludes to evidence about the work of sculptors where she can, one wishes for more speculation about the role of the artisan in these religious constructions. Epigraphic evidence suggests that monks did not act as intermediaries between patrons and stone carvers, but what was the role of the craftsmen in determining the appearance of the icons selected by these patrons? What was their relationship to Buddhist societies of the time? McNair does not characterize Longmen patrons, whether a devout monk or aspiring heir apparent, as sole agents in the appearance of the image, but artistic agency is downplayed in these complex narratives because dedicatory inscriptions reveal primarily the objectives of donors. This is not to fault McNair's study, but to remind the reader that the question of agency and the perspective of inscriptions is more complex than the term “donor” implies.

The strength of this book lies in the range of sources from which McNair draws and the accessibility of diverse approaches to a broad audience. While McNair‘s statement that “meaning conveyed through style is the essence of what I was trained to understand as art history” (pp. 4–5) rings true in her measured analysis of visual details, this formal concern is adumbrated with an examination of larger social parameters, including her discussion of economic expenditure and her exploration of religious practices and political voices conveyed through dedicatory inscriptions. The engaging epilogue recounts the “afterlife” of Longmen from three perspectives: as religious site for the faithful (until the thirteenth century), an archaeological site for intellectuals (Qing), and a destination for Western visitors who championed its artistic merit (early twentieth century).