Box with Scenes of a Departure

China

Not on view

The peony scroll, twisted wire, and hexagonal patterns on the border of this box are archaizing elements that are also found in earlier Chinese and Korean lacquer. Images of gentlemen traveling in the evening are common in Chinese pictorial lacquer. Mother-of-pearl, with its lunar-like iridescence, was probably understood as an appropriate medium for depicting a moonlit landscape.

Box with Scenes of a Departure, Black lacquer with mother-of-pearl inlay; pewter wire, China

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Box with Scenes of a Departure, Black lacquer with mother-of-pearl inlay; pewter wire, China
Box with Scenes of a Departure, Black lacquer with mother-of-pearl inlay; pewter wire, China

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