China FDC on "Court Ladies Preparing Newly-Woven Silk"

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China


Court Ladies Preparing Newly-Woven Silk

Date of Issue : 13 April 2013

"Court Ladies Preparing Newly-Woven Silk" (Song Dynasty Copy), a scroll with exact delineation and enriched colors attributed to painter Zhang Xuan of the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907). Now collected by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the painting depicts a scene of Tang women pounding, sewing and ironing newly-woven silk.

The Scroll depicts 12 court women in three groups. The first group shown in the opening includes two women pounding the white silk soaked in trough with wooden pestles. The middle section of the scroll is devoted to the sewing team. In the "ironing" part of the scroll, two ladies are stretching the newly-pounded white silk, with subtle movements of their shoulders vividly depicted, while a girl dressed in white supports the cloth with hands at the center, and a noble lady uses an iron to remove wrinkles.