Ancient Chinese Bronzes (late 1800s): Art, History and Details

Ancient Chinese Bronzes (late 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This embroidered folding screen depicts a set of bronze vessels. While the subject of bronze vessels is part of mainstream male elite culture, which centered on ancestral rituals, the written text that accompanies each bronze vessel expresses the idea of evoking good fortune and wishing for many children. The is perhaps related to the idea that those who diligently perform rituals for the spirit of ancestors could have all their aspirations realized.

Object facts

• Title: Ancient Chinese Bronzes
• Date: late 1800s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Ten-panel folding screen; embroidery, gold silk threads on black silk
• Dimensions: Each panel: 147.3 x 34.5 cm (58 x 13 9/16 in.); Overall framed: 224.9 x 493.2 cm (88 9/16 x 194 3/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Folding screen
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 2020.86

A detail from the museum

The written text that accompanies each bronze vessel depicted in this embroidered screen expresses the idea of evoking good fortune and wishing for many children.

Collection credit

Gift of the Honorable Joseph P. Carroll, KM, and Roberta Carroll, M.D., in recognition of the contribution of Marjorie Williams to the development of The Cleveland Museum of Art

Further reading listed by the museum

• Kim, Yeong-suk. "Junijongjeongdo jasubyeongpung gochal: osaka sagai siripbangmulgwan sojang 준이종정도(尊彛鐘鼎圖) 자수병풍 고찰: 오사카 사가이 시립박물관 소장." National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Munhwajae 13 (1998): 221-254.
• Beyond Folding Screens [조선, 병풍의 나라]. Seoul: Amorepacific Museum of Art, 2018.
• Ch'a, Mi-rae, Kwi-suk An, Cleveland Museum of Art, and 국외소재문화재재단. The Korean Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Edited by An Min-hŭi. First edition, English ed. Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Series, 16. Seoul, Republic of Korea: Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, 2021.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.