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Research Article

Production and Consumption of Coromandel Lacquer Screens in the 17th and 18th Centuries

유수경

서울시립미술관

Published: December 2021 · No. 312 · pp. 75-108

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31065/kjah.312.202112.003

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Abstract

Coromandel lacquer screen is a Chinese folding screen made from the 17th century to 19th century in China. The screen is usually about 250cm high, 600cm width and consisting of twelve panels. Although these screens were made in China during the Qing dynasty, they received their name from India’s Coromandel coast, where they were transshipped to Europe in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by merchants of the English and Dutch East India companies. The Dutch traders carried these screens from Bantam in Java, and in early accounts they were frequently called Bantam screens as well as Coromandel screens. This paper examines Coromandel lacquer screen's art historical significance in the incising global interaction and consumer culture in the 17th and 18th centuries. It first discusses historical and cultural background of production in China which have been little known about. The primary sources focus on the record of Xiu Shi lu , the 16th century book about lacquer, and the inscriptions left on the screens. They will give information about when the screens were produced, what was the purpose of them, and the technique of decoratively incising lacquer and adding polychrome to the voids, called kuan cai in Chinese. The lacquer screen features a continuous scene run through all twelve panels, just like a hand-scroll painting with variety of colours. The prominent subjects for decoration are human figures, landscape and bird-and-flower. The narrative theme with human figures, such as Birthday Reception for General Guo Ziyi and the World of Immortals were shaped by literature or play. Also, the parallels between the lacquer screens and the paintings on the same theme are found.
Keywords: 청대칠기(Qing lacquer)코로만델 칠병풍(Coromandel lacquer screen)중국수출품(Chinese export art)시누아즈리(Chinoiserie)동인도회사(East India Company)