Music in the Jade Palace (1736–95): Art, History and Details

Music in the Jade Palace (1736–95) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

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.

Object facts

• Title: Music in the Jade Palace
• Date: 1736–95
• Culture: Southeast China, Suzhou, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Qianlong reign (1736–95)
• Type: Print
• Technique: Multicolor woodblock print; ink and color on paper; printed in three shades of black and green, hand colored in red
• Dimensions: Print only: 119 x 60.5 cm (46 7/8 x 23 13/16 in.); Overall: 119.5 x 65.6 cm (47 1/16 x 25 13/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Qing Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 2025.83

A detail from the museum

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.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

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.