Hunting screen
Hunting developed as a subject of narrative painting during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Predominantly shown on folding screens, these pictures were popular with military officials of the yangban class. This example depicts a lively scene with men and women on galloping horses stalking deer, tigers, a monkey, and an elephant. On the right, the most important figure in the entourage is emphasized through his large size and the canopy shielding him. Based on the attire and the sparse mountain setting, the painting likely depicts Joseon’s Manchu neighbors in a northern landscape. While tigers and deer are indigenous to the Korean peninsula, monkeys and elephants are not. Thus, the image is a fanciful fiction grounded in the Manchus’ reputation as formidable hunters.
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