Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
<em>In the Palace</em> depicts 13 ladies of the imperial household, three servants, and six children in fluent <em>baimiao</em> (plain drawing) brushwork, accentuated by color. The women entertain themselves by making music, tending children, and playing with pets. Their elaborate hairstyles, plump figures, and flowing robes are reminiscent of Tang dynasty <br>fashion. <br><br>The scroll illustrates elegant court life and is a direct copy of the original by Zhou Wenju (active 940–75) from Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province. Zhou was employed at the Southern Tang court in Nanjing under Emperor Li Yu (reigned 961–76), a prolific poet.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
148395
label
In the Palace
core
obj
dtoType
painting
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
148395
contentType
painting
title
In the Palace
description
<em>In the Palace</em> depicts 13 ladies of the imperial household, three servants, and six children in fluent <em>baimiao</em> (plain drawing) brushwork, accentuated by color. The women entertain themselves by making music, tending children, and playing with pets. Their elaborate hairstyles, plump figures, and flowing robes are reminiscent of Tang dynasty <br>fashion. <br><br>The scroll illustrates elegant court life and is a direct copy of the original by Zhou Wenju (active 940–75) from Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province. Zhou was employed at the Southern Tang court in Nanjing under Emperor Li Yu (reigned 961–76), a prolific poet.
date
before 1140
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60472972
creators
30162
genreSpecific
Painting
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Painting: 28.5 x 168.6 cm (11 1/4 x 66 3/8 in.); Overall: 29.7 x 306.1 cm (11 11/16 x 120 1/2 in.)
cul
China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
accession
1976.1
Source extras
tec
Handscroll; ink and light color on silk
tombstone
In the Palace (宮中圖), before 1140. After a work attributed to Zhou Wenju (Chinese, active 942–961). Handscroll; ink and light color on silk; painting: 28.5 x 168.6 cm (11 1/4 x 66 3/8 in.); overall: 29.7 x 306.1 cm (11 11/16 x 120 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1976.1
titleInOriginalLanguage
宮中圖
collection
ASIAN - Handscroll
inscriptions
inscription
1 colophon and 13 seals: 1 colophon and 1 seal of Zheng Cheng 張澂 (d. 1143); 12 seals unidentified.
inscription
Colophon by Zhang Cheng 張澂 (d. 1143):
周文矩宮中圖婦人小兒其數八十，一男子寫神，而粧具、樂器、盆盂、扇椅席、鸚鵡、犬蝶不與。文矩句容人，為江南翰林待詔。作士女體近周昉，而加纖麗。嘗為後主畫南莊圖，號一時絕筆。它日上之朝廷，詔籍之祕閣。宮中圖云是真蹟，藏前太府卿朱載家。或摹以見餽。婦人高髻自唐以來如此。此卷豐肌長襦裙，周昉法也。予至嶠南，於端溪陳高祖之裔，見其世藏諸帝像，左右宮人梳髻與此畧同。而丫鬟乃作兩大鬟，垂
肩項間，雖醜而有真態。李氏自謂南唐，故衣冠多用唐制，然風流寔承六朝之餘。畫家者言辨古畫當先問衣冠車服，蓋謂是也。紹興庚申五月乙酉澹嵒居士題。
印：張澂印章
inscription_translation
[This is] Zhou Wenju’s painting, In the Palace. [In this scroll], women and children number eighty, with a single man. All are drawn to life, not to mention such matters as cosmetic accessories, musical instruments, pots and pans, fans, chairs, mats, parakeets, dogs, and butterflies. Wenju was a native of Jurong. He served as a Hanlin Daizhao [painter-in-waiting] in the south. In figure painting, his style is akin to Zhou Fang’s [active 8th century], but adding a touch of exquisiteness. He once painted a painting titled Southern Villa for Li Houzhu, a painting that was praised at the time as a supreme achievement. In later days, it was presented to the [Song] court and was much cherished in the imperial pavilion [library]. In the Palace was said to be a genuine work by him. It had been in the collection of Zhu Zai, the former Chamberlain for Palace Revenue. Perhaps he had a copy made as a gift, [which is the scroll that I saw]. Women here are depicted with tall chignons, such being the fashion since the Tang dynasty. This scroll presents them with full bodies and also long trailing skirts—this was indeed Zhou Fang’s approach. When in Qiaonan, I visited the descendents of Emperor Gaozu [r. 618–626] of the Chen [dynasty] at Duanxi [near Gaoyao xian, Guangdong province] and saw with my own eyes their family collection of imperial ancestors. The attendant ladies at the sides of these Emperors had the same hairdo as is seen here. The palace servants were shown with two large loops hanging between the neck and shoulder. Although these hairstyles looked ugly, they do appear quite real indeed. The House of Li called its own dynasty Southern Tang; consequently, in matters of fashion, they adhered to the Tang mode. Yet in terms of their cultural origins, they were inheritors of the Six Dynasties. It is the insight of those painters who believed that, in appraising ancient paintings, the first priority lies in the discernment of costumes, furnishings, chariots, and so on. This is indeed the case. On the yiyou day of the fifth moon, the gengshen year of the Shaoxing era, Tanyan Jushi inscribed this.
Seal: “Zhang Cheng yin zhang” [seal inadvertently impressed upside down].
didYouKnow
The ladies' elaborate hairstyles, plump figures, and flowing robes are reminiscent of Tang dynasty fashion.
citations
citation
The CMA handscroll is one part of an original twelfth-century painting, which was divided into four sections. The fourth section is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
citation
Another section of the handscroll is preserved in the Harvard Art Museums' collection.
citation
The Bernard Berenson collection at Villa I Tatti, Florence, Italy, also has a section.
citation
Fernald, Helen Elizabeth. "Ladies of the court, an early Chinese scroll painting." <em>Museum Journal</em>. v. 19, no. 4 [December 1928], pp. 333–349.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 333–349
citation
<em>The Chinese Exhibition; A Commemorative Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, November 1935-March 1936</em>. London: Faber and Faber, 1936.
page_number
Mentioned: cat. no. 894, pp. 68, 87
citation
<em>Pacific Cultures, Department of Fine Arts, Division of Pacific Cultures</em>. San Francisco, CA: Golden Gate International Exposition, 1939.
page_number
Reproduced: no. 154, pl. N; Mentioned: p. 38
citation
Loehr, Max. "Chinese Paintings with Sung Dated Inscriptions." <em>Ars orientalis: the arts of Islam and the East </em>Volume 4 (1961): 219–284.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 252
citation
Yashiro, Yukio. <em>Nihon bijutsu no saikentō </em>[Japanese art re-examined = 日本美術の再検討]. Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: fig. 102
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 339
citation
Watson, William. <em>L'art de l'ancienne Chine</em>. Paris: Mazenod, 1979.
page_number
Reproduced: pl. 41
citation
Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. <em>Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980.
page_number
Reproduced: cat. no. 16, pp. 27–29
citation
Cunningham, Michael R. “Painting the Poetry of the Natural World.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 279–291.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 281, fig. 2
citation
Fu, Shen C. Y. and Jan Stuart. <em>Challenging the Past: The Paintings of Chang Dai-Chien</em>. Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1991.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 150, fig. 82
citation
Addiss, Stephen, Kenneth J. DeWoskin, and Mitchell Clark. <em>The resonance of the qin in East Asian ar</em>t. New York: China Institute Gallery, China Institute, 1999.
page_number
Reproduced: pp. 68–69, cat. no. 6
citation
Chung, Anita. "Collaboration and Commemoration: Cleveland's Masterpieces at the Shanghai Museum." <em>Orientations </em>43:8 (Nov/Dec 2012): 90–95.
page_number
Reproduced: pp. 90–91, fig. 1
citation
Shanghai bo wu guan. <em>Han mo ju zhen: Zhongguo Riben Meiguo cang Zhongguo gu dai shu hua yi shu</em> [翰墨聚珍: 中國日本美國藏中國古代書畫藝術 = Treasures in the spotlight: art of early Chinese painting and calligraphy in Chinese, Japanese and American collections]. Shanghai Shi: Shanghai shu hua chu ban she, 2012.
page_number
Reproduced: pp. 84–85, fig. 39
citation
Shanghai bo wu guan. <em>Han mo hui cui: xi du Meiguo cang Zhongguo Wu dai Song Yuan shu hua zhen pin</em> [翰墨薈萃: 细读美国藏中国五代宋元书画珍品 = Masterpieces of early Chinese painting and calligraphy in American collections]. Beijing: Beijing da xue chu ban she, 2012.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 329–337, Reproduced: cat no. 39
citation
Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. <em>Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 44–49
citation
Blanchard, Lara C. W. <em>Song Dynasty Figures of Longing and Desire: Gender and Interiority in Chinese Painting and Poetry.</em> Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 29–31, 34, 40; Reproduced: pp. 42–45, figs. 2.1- 2.4
citation
Kwok, Zoe S. <em>The Eternal Feast: Banqueting in Chinese Art from the 10th to the 14th Century.</em> Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Art Museum, 2019.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 131–132, no. 23
citation
Hu, Luwen. "From Grassland to Garden-on the Embroidery Nine Goats Heralding the New Year." <em>Orientations</em> 50, no. 5 (Sept/Oct 2019): 120–129.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 124
citation
Blanchard, Lara C. W. "Defining a Female Subjectivity: Gendered Gazes and Feminist Reinterpretations in the Art of Cui Xiuwen and Yu Hong." <em>(En)Gendering: Chinese Women's Art in the Making </em>28, no. 1 (February 2020): 177–205.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 184–185, fig. 4
citation
Griswold, William, Xiaofei Tian, Richard Von Glahn, Feng Zhao, S. J. Vainker, Masaaki Itakura, Jiang Wu, et al. <em>China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta</em>. Edited by Clarissa Von Spee. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 139–140, no. 40
creditline
John L. Severance Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:38:10.431000
sourceId
148395
dept
Chinese Art
coll
ASIAN - Handscroll
med
Handscroll; ink and light color on silk
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
a7a59b08de0336ca