Music in the Jade Palace
1766
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1766
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Music in the Jade Palace is a 1766 by Unknown, a Baroque work, depicting Qianlong Reign, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a room full of musicians in silk robes playing flutes, lutes, and drums under a green-tiled roof. The painting was probably made as a wall print in the 1700s, when Chinese cities started selling colorful sheets for people to hang at home. The bright greens and reds look like they were stamped from carved wood blocks, not brushed by hand. If you like the look of daily life in old China, search for “qing dynasty (1644–1911).”
In the 1600s, printing flourished in such Jiangnan cities as Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Huizhou, evolving from privately enjoyed illustrated books printed in color to more commercialized single-sheet color prints that were hung on walls and became part of the rich urban visual culture.
Woodblock printing in color reached a height in China in the 1600s to 1700s. The prints were executed by means of sets of separate blocks, each carved to print a different color.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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