General Guo Ziyi’s Birthday Banquet (early or mid-1800s): Art, History and Details

General Guo Ziyi’s Birthday Banquet (early or mid-1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The subject of this folding screen is a banquet in honor of Guo Ziyi (697–781), who is considered one of the greatest generals in Chinese history. He had a long and successful military career as well as a blissful family life. Thus, his image surrounded by his numerous family members symbolize the paragon of success and happiness. Using a wide spectrum of colorful silk threads, the artist colorfully depicts Guo enjoying his full-fledged retirement life.

Object facts

• Title: General Guo Ziyi’s Birthday Banquet
• Date: early or mid-1800s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Eight-panel folding screen, embroidery on silk
• Dimensions: Painting: 60.9 x 30 cm (24 x 11 13/16 in.); Overall framed: 195.2 x 332.4 cm (76 7/8 x 130 7/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Folding screen
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 2020.87

A detail from the museum

This folding screen is highly likely to have been created by an amateur woman embroiderer.

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

• Sotheby's, New York. Japanese and Korean Works of Art. 21 September 2000. Lot 442.
• Kim, Hong-nam. "A Study of Painting of Guo Fenyang’s Enjoyment-of-Life in Korea [한국 〈郭汾陽行樂圖〉 연구]." Misulsa nondan (2012): 67–104.
• Beyond Folding Screens [조선, 병풍의 나라]. Seoul: Amorepacific Museum of Art, 2018.

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.