Painting Playing the bamboo flute in the garden

The fifth picture from an album of Chinese paintings of the everyday lives of court ladies, with a girl playing a bamboo flute on a bench under a tree, showing the magic of music. This is also illustrated by part of the inscription (duilian 對聯), which is in the open space leading to a round gate, also called the moon gate (yueliang men 月亮門). The moon gate was an integral part of Chinese gardens built by the wealthy elite. The individual elements of gardens usually pointed to noble virtues and auspicious signs of good fortune and prosperity, and the moon gate was supposed to signal an auspicious welcome and bring wealth to all who passed through it, so that it was usually erected at the garden entrance. After more intensive contact with Chinese culture in the 19th century, English gardeners also adopted this idea. (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: 26 cm, length: 37 cm

Inscription: 樂山水而向蕭弦之趣. Le shanshui er xiang xiaoxiang zhi qu. (Fragrant flowers in a small garden smell 10 li around. The joy of mountains and waters while playing the bamboo flute.)

No. of parts: the fifth 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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