Production and Consumption of Coromandel Lacquer Screens in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Coromandel lacquer screen is a Chinese folding screen made from the 17th century to 19th century in China. The screen is usually about 250cm high, 600cm width and consisting of twelve panels. Although these screens were made in China during the Qing dynasty, they received their name from India’s Coromandel coast, where they were transshipped to Europe in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by merchants of the English and Dutch East India companies. The Dutch traders carried these screens from Bantam in Java, and in early accounts they were frequently called Bantam screens as well as Coromandel screens. This paper examines Coromandel lacquer screen's art historical significance in the incising global interaction and consumer culture in the 17th and 18th centuries. It first discusses historical and cultural background of production in China which have been little known about. The primary sources focus on the record of Xiu Shi lu, the 16th century book about lacquer, and the inscriptions left on the screens. They will give information about when the screens were produced, what was the purpose of them, and the technique of decoratively incising lacquer and adding polychrome to the voids, called kuan cai in Chinese. The lacquer screen features a continuous scene run through all twelve panels, just like a hand-scroll painting with variety of colours. The prominent subjects for decoration are human figures, landscape and bird-and-flower. The narrative theme with human figures, such as Birthday Reception for General Guo Ziyi and the World of Immortals were shaped by literature or play. Also, the parallels between the lacquer screens and the paintings on the same theme are found. The scenes with Europeans are rare but bring various interpretations within the historical context of the time. The landscape themes, such as the Scenes of Lake Xihu and the Nine Bend in Mountain Wuyi, were depicted famous scenic spots in China. The composition and expression of the screens were probably inspired by landscape woodblock prints, it’s because the technique of lacquer screen and woodblock cutting are similar. Lastly, bird-and-flower theme has a long tradition of wishing longevity, happiness and peace in one’s life and produced in various medium. Thanks to the enormous progress in navigation and discovered sea roots in the 16th century, Dutch and England East India Companies imported quantities of Chinese lacquerworks in the 17th century. As Chinoiserie gain popularity all over Europe, Chinese objects were consumed in various ways. Imported Coromandel lacquer screens were incorporated into European interiors. They were cut into a number of panels, which mounted within wood paneling on walls and inserted into contemporary furniture. The lacquer screen also inspired European’s imitation of Asian lacquer known by a variety of names. This paper surveys Coromandel lacquer screen’s domestic production, exploding consumption and global conquest from the 17th century to 18th centuries, when the screen was explosively made. The lacquer screen is an active participant in cross-cultural interaction, not merely a passive commodity of china. Investigating the material culture of the lacquer screen, it was originally created in chinese domestic background concerned with social prestige, in Europe, consumed to show off exotic luxury and triggered a new stylistic changes in chinoiserie.

朝鮮女訓書的歷史發展與視覺教化意涵

<p>本文分別就朝鮮前期與後期考察朝鮮時代女訓書的歷史發展及針對女性之視覺教化的情形，並試圖闡明其意義。從朝鮮前期到中期，乃至於近代初期，「教化」與「鑑戒」的定型是以圖像表現女性的主要前提之一。教化與鑑戒在將女性形象表現於圖像上發揮關鍵作用，其緊密的關聯性提醒吾人必須研究視覺圖像在以女性為教化對象時發揮的功能與意義。朝鮮時代女訓書以及針對女性之視覺教化，在朝鮮初期以王室主導的賢妃與身體犧牲型烈女形象為主；在此基礎上，朝鮮後期轉向以士大夫為主導，加入更多貼近日常生活的內容。朝鮮後期將日常生活中必須恪遵的規範，以日常生活中隨處可見的屏風形式呈現，這種視覺教化必須以婚後居住型態普遍由婦處制轉變為夫處制的夫家生活為前提。換言之，此一現象呈現了朝鮮後期父權家長制高度發展的一個指標。</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>This paper examines the historical development of Confucian Women’s classics[女訓書] in the Joseon Dynasty and the aspects of visual correction for women in the early and late Joseon periods, and explores their meaning. Enlightenment and sensation were one of the main premise of expressing women in paintings from Joseon Dynasty to mid-term through early modern times. Enlightenment and sensation were acting on the basis of allowing women to be settled as icons, and the closeness reminds us of the need to consider the role and meaning of visual image in enlightenment. In the early Joseon Dynasty, the Confucian Women’s classics and visual edification for women were mainly based on the statue of the Hyun-bi[賢妃] led by the royal family and a physically sacrificed female figure. In addition to this, in the latter part of the Joseon Dynasty, more closely related contents were added to the daily life, as the Sadaebu[士大夫] became the center. Visualization in the form of a folding screen that can be seen in everyday life focuses on the contents that can be performed in married life in the home of the husband’s parents in the late Joseon Dynasty. In other words, this change is an indicator of the patriarchy advanced in the late Joseon Dynasty.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>