1945.28: In the Palace

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1945.28

People

Copy after Zhou Wenju 周文矩, Chinese (active 940–975)

Title

In the Palace

Other Titles

Original Language Title: 倣周文矩 宮中圖
Former Title: Palace Ladies at Leisure

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

handscroll, painting

Date

before 1140

Places

Creation Place: East Asia, China

Period

Song dynasty, Southern Song period, 1127-1279

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/203790

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Handscroll; ink and traces of pigment on silk

Dimensions

H. 25.7 x W. 177 cm (10 1/8 x 69 11/16 in.)

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number

A 10-026 (Suzuki Kei)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Francis H. Burr Memorial Fund

Accession Year

1945

Object Number

1945.28

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Originally part of a longer scroll copied from a lost work by the Five Dynasties painter Zhou Wenju, this scroll is an important relic of Chinese court figure painting. Executed in the "baimiao" or outline mode with touches of color only in their red hair ribbons and lips, the women and children of these intimate scenes are brought vividly to life by the sensitive brushwork of the artist. Additional scrolls preserving the other sections of Zhou Wenju's composition are found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and at Villa I Tatti, Florence. A colophon dated to 1140 and preserved with the Cleveland portion states that this copy of Zhou Wenju's scroll was made for the scholar and critic Zhang Cheng (d. 1143).

Publication History

• Yukio Yashiro, "Again on the Sung Copy of the Scroll 'Ladies of the Court' by Chou Wen-chu", Bijutsu Kenkyu (The Journal of Art Studies), Institute of Art Research, Tokyo (1952), vol. IV, no. 169, pp. 157-62, pp. 157-162, Pl. II-V
• Suzuki Kei, Chugoku kaiga sogo zuroku, Amerika Kanada hen (Comprehensive Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Paintings, Volume 1: American and Canadian Collections), University of Tokyo Press (Tokyo, Japan, 1982), pp. I-56 and I-432, no. A 10-026
• Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 27, p. 32
• Lara Blanchard, Mou Yi’s Pounding Cloth: Painting, Play, Reference, and Discourse in Song China, Artibus Asiae, Museum Rietberg Zurich (Zurich, 2013), vol. LXXIII, no. 2, pp. 295-341, p. 315, fig. 15
• Zoe Kwok, The Eternal Feast: Banqueting in Chinese Art from the 10th to the 14th Century, exh. cat., Princeton University Art Museum (New Haven, 2019), pp. 131, 134, fig. 46

Exhibition History

• Later Chinese and Japanese Figure Painting in Decorative Arts, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 02/22/1992 - 06/07/1992
• Women and the Arts of Asia, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/10/1994 - 03/05/1995
• Masterworks of East Asian Painting, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 11/03/1995 - 06/09/1996
• A Compelling Legacy: Masterworks of East Asian Painting, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/24/2004 - 03/20/2005
• China in Twelve Artworks, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/23/2016 - 05/08/2016

Subjects and Contexts

• Google Art Project
• Collection Highlights

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