Coromandel Screen Panel

One panel of a twelve panel lacquered folding screen. The design is incised and painted with various colored lacs, a technique known as kuan cai (款彩) in Chinese. The front has scenes from an imperial palace showing various court ladies engaging in leisure activities including swinging, dancing, boating, riding horseback, playing music, playing chess, reading, painting, embroidering, and playing battledore and shuttlecock. The border on the front of the screen features vases, ancient bronze vessels, jade ornaments, jewels, lingzhi (fungus of longevity), coral, and baskets of fruit and flowers. The back of the screen has a separate picture of flowers, rocks, and birds (especially types of pheasants) on each panel. The back border shows mythological animals on the sides and bottom of the screen with fruits and ancient bronze vessels along the top.