Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 27. (Budapest, 2009)
Györgyi FAJCSÁK - Andrea FÜZES: Chinese Embroidered Screen from the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries
7. Screen from the 1850s, (Museum of Applied Arts, inv. no: 67. 835) The screen was a distinctive space divider in both interiors and between buildings, in courtyards (fig. 4). This was particularly important in Chinese houses (in both the men's and women's apartments), where many people lived and moved in a small space and the screen provided a degree of separation and intimacy. Screens were also set up behind emperors or high officials at audiences. Their ceremonial function is indisputable. The wooden frame usually held a painted or embroidered silk picture. 6 Most common were the favourite themes from Chinese painting - landscapes and bird-and-flower compositions. From the second half of the 16 t h century, the single-leaf marble-panel screen became a very popular item of furniture among South Chinese scholars and traders. The delicate grain of the selected marble slab often resembled hill outlines of a Chinese landscape. Carved red-lacquer and openwork wooden screens were also made in China. The image proportions of single-piece screens - upper and lower fields and side borders - followed the mounting layout of Chinese vertical scrolls (fig. 6). Paintings were also frequently used for the adornment of multiple-element screens. These typically employed the compositions of horizontal scroll paintings. Such pictures were most often painted on paper or silk, but could also involve lacquer painting or precious stone and shell inlay on wood. Smaller screens set on tables were also popular in China (fig. 5). The leaves of these table screens also bore themes from paintings. Unlike scroll pictures or album leaves, which Chinese scholars put on display only on special occasions such as meetings of scholars, the paintings on table screens or large screens were part of the everyday furniture, either on the desk or in the reception hall. The leaves of Chinese screens were mostly made of paper or silk, but their fragility led to the use of more durable materials (porcelain panels, precious stone inlay, red lacquer). The oldest screens found in Hungary date from the 18 t h century. They became fashionable in drawing rooms and bedrooms in the second half of the 19 t h century, when they were regarded as space dividers, enabling separation and intimacy (fig. 7). 168
