Painting Arrest of the convict

Another picture from an album of Chinese paintings depicting various methods of punishment in the Qing Dynasty, showing two officials. One is arresting a male suspect, while the other is preventing his wife from approaching him.

Punishment and trial were among the most popular motifs depicted by Cantonese artists on special paper made from the native evergreen tree tongcao 通草 (Tetrapanax papyrifer). Foreign visitors were especially fascinated by the legal system in which the accused was not represented and torture was used in court proceedings. Harsh interrogation methods such as finger snapping, slapping, and hanging with ropes were of particular interest, as were punishments ranging from beating with bamboo and tying to a tree stump to execution by suffocation and decapitation for the worst crimes. (NVS)

Information
Object history

Place of manufacture: Canton (Guangdong 廣東 )

Material description: paper from Tetrapanex papyrifera (tongcao 通草) tree, silk

Manufacturing technique: gouache, watercolour

Dimensions: height: 25 cm, length: 38 cm

No. of parts: the second of twelve paintings

Current owner: Slovene Ethnographic Museum

Date of the last acquisition: 1963

Last acquisition method: donation

Previous owners and periods of ownership: Ivan Skušek, Jr. and Tsuneko Kondō Kawase - Marija Skušek, National Museum of Slovenia, Slovene Ethnographic Museum

Object condition, handling and damage: The edges of the page are slightly torn.

History of exhibition: Slovene Ethnographic Museum, Ljubljana, 31. 8. 2006–3. 9. 2007 (exhibition Srečevanja s Kitajsko: 200 let slovenskih odkrivanj kitajske kulture [Encounters with China: 200 years of Slovenian discovery of Chinese culture])

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