Art Institute of Chicago

United by Music 合樂圖

Artist unknown (Chinese, 16th century)

Date

Ming dynasty (1368–1644), 15th/16th century

Medium

Handscroll; ink and colors on silk

Culture

China

Department

Arts of Asia

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This all-female ensemble is an imperial or aristocratic orchestra. Singly or in pairs, the musicians play the large drum, clapper, oboe, vertical flute, transverse flute, hourglass drum, mouth organ, gong-chime, long zither, angular harp, and lute. Such instruments accurately represent those played by the mid- Tang dynasty (eighth century), as known today from surviving artifacts and textural descriptions of the Imperial Conservatory of Music. The audience for this concert strikingly resembles court figures depicted in The Night Revels of Han Xizai , a painting in the Palace Museum, Beijing, attributed to the tenth century painter Gu Hongzhong. Gu Hongzhong was a contemporary of Zhou Wenju, to whom this handscroll was originally ascribed. The artist responsible for this fifteenth-century painting apparently drew upon a number of earlier artistic models, creating a composite image that recalled the work of past centuries.

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