Grapes
Unknown Artist
1700s
Medium
hanging scroll, ink on silk
Dimensions
176.5 × 73 cm · image: 101 × 47 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Korean Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Accession Number
1999.43
About this artwork
Grapes began to be employed as artistic motifs in Korean art after their introduction to the peninsula around the 600s through the Silk Road, the ancient global trade route. Artists used them to embellish the surfaces of mother-of-pearl lacquer boxes and blue-and-white porcelain, while scholar-poets composed poems about the luscious sweet sourness of green grapes. Grape paintings such as this were hung on a wall especially in a scholar’s elegant study during the summer season when deep blue grap...