拍品专文
This screen is entirely typical of Korean screens in three basic ways. 'Birds and Flowers' is the most frequent theme of Korean theme paintings. Korean screens usually have either eight or ten panels (this one has ten). Unlike Japanese screens, which normally have a continuous composition across the twelve panels of a pair, Korean screens are single and usually have a seperate picture, framed by a brocade border, on each panel.
Whereas a hunting screen or book-stack screen was appropriate for the men's quarters of a Yi-Dynasty (1392-1910) home, a birds-and-flowers screen belonged in the women's quarters. The pairs of birds, or deer, rabbits, fish, or butterflies, in the paintings symbolized happy marriage and, through Taoist magic, helped bring it about. Hwacho was called a 'bedroom theme'. When such a screen was placed in the bedroom of a newly married woman, its loving bird or animal couples were thought to encourage pregnancy. Bearing male children was a Yi-Dynasty wife's highest responsibility.
'Birds and Flowers', but without the pair symbolism, has been one of the standard subject-matter categories of Chinese painting since early times. The category includes small animals, and even deer, but not horses, along with birds both real and imaginary. It also includes certain woody plants along with flowers proper.
Most of the several types of birds and flowering plants in the present screen are sufficiently realistically drawn to be easily recogizable; others seem fanciful enough to be imaginary, or at least hard to identify. The following list includes the more easily recognizable ones, reading from left to right:
Panel 1 : two kingfishers (one flying, with a small fish in its beak), male mallard, two female mallards, lotus, reeds.
Panel 2 : pair of mandarin ducks (mandarin ducks mate for life), a pair of quail, pair of swallows, azalea, garden rock.
Panel 3 : pair of wood ducks, pair of mynahs fighting, one mynah flying, camellia, rocks.
Panel 4 : pair of Chinese pheasants with two chicks, peonies, magnolia.
Panel 5 : pair of pidgeons, pair of kingfishers, white peonies, red peonies, pink peonies (the peony is the symbol of feminine beauty and sexuality)
Panel 6 : peacock, peahen, pair of robins, palmetto, garden rock.
Panel 7 : pair of Chinese pheasants (one offering the other an insect), pair of sparrows, red camellias, white camellias. Panel 8 : frog on bank of stream, tadpoles in the water, pair of parrots, pomegranates, citrons, garden rock.
Panel 9 : two pairs of wild geese (wild geese mate for life), banana plant, chrysanthemums, reeds
Panel 10: pair of ring-necked pheasants, narcissus, blossoming plum.
Whereas a hunting screen or book-stack screen was appropriate for the men's quarters of a Yi-Dynasty (1392-1910) home, a birds-and-flowers screen belonged in the women's quarters. The pairs of birds, or deer, rabbits, fish, or butterflies, in the paintings symbolized happy marriage and, through Taoist magic, helped bring it about. Hwacho was called a 'bedroom theme'. When such a screen was placed in the bedroom of a newly married woman, its loving bird or animal couples were thought to encourage pregnancy. Bearing male children was a Yi-Dynasty wife's highest responsibility.
'Birds and Flowers', but without the pair symbolism, has been one of the standard subject-matter categories of Chinese painting since early times. The category includes small animals, and even deer, but not horses, along with birds both real and imaginary. It also includes certain woody plants along with flowers proper.
Most of the several types of birds and flowering plants in the present screen are sufficiently realistically drawn to be easily recogizable; others seem fanciful enough to be imaginary, or at least hard to identify. The following list includes the more easily recognizable ones, reading from left to right:
Panel 1 : two kingfishers (one flying, with a small fish in its beak), male mallard, two female mallards, lotus, reeds.
Panel 2 : pair of mandarin ducks (mandarin ducks mate for life), a pair of quail, pair of swallows, azalea, garden rock.
Panel 3 : pair of wood ducks, pair of mynahs fighting, one mynah flying, camellia, rocks.
Panel 4 : pair of Chinese pheasants with two chicks, peonies, magnolia.
Panel 5 : pair of pidgeons, pair of kingfishers, white peonies, red peonies, pink peonies (the peony is the symbol of feminine beauty and sexuality)
Panel 6 : peacock, peahen, pair of robins, palmetto, garden rock.
Panel 7 : pair of Chinese pheasants (one offering the other an insect), pair of sparrows, red camellias, white camellias. Panel 8 : frog on bank of stream, tadpoles in the water, pair of parrots, pomegranates, citrons, garden rock.
Panel 9 : two pairs of wild geese (wild geese mate for life), banana plant, chrysanthemums, reeds
Panel 10: pair of ring-necked pheasants, narcissus, blossoming plum.