popular print; hanging scroll BM-1991-1031-0.1

Period:Unknown Production date:1743
Materials:paper
Technique:woodblock, hand-coloured,

Dimensions:Height: 228.50 centimetres (Entire scroll length including silk mount) Height: 98.20 centimetres (paper and image) Width: 77.90 centimetres (max-including pommels) Width: 53.50 centimetres (paper and image)

Description:
Hanging scroll; multicoloured woodblock print made from three blocks, some colours applied with stencils and a brush
IMG


Comments:Here children are at play in a courtyard. Lanterns indicate night time and the celebration of the Lantern Festival. ‘One Hundred Children’ was a popular theme and expresses a wish for many offspring. The print, in hanging scroll format, was made by impressing three woodblocks from the top to the bottom on a large sheet of paper. The complex architecture and fine line shading in the manner of copperplate engravings reveals a knowledge of Western images introduced through Jesuits at the emperor’s court. The scroll suggests a demand of the urban population for extravagance, novelty and at the same time for the emulation of the elite culture at court.