Palace Ladies
Qiu Ying (Chinese, 1494–1552)
1644–1911
Medium
handscroll, ink and color on silk
Dimensions
36.2 × 454.4 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Chinese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of I. Theodore Kahn
Accession Number
1954.369
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
male
About this artwork
This handscroll illustrates the pursuits of court ladies in a palace precinct on a spring day. Women, young girls, and their maids amuse themselves by sitting on a swing, playing games, watering and admiring peonies, performing music together, playing the qin (zither), feeding a parrot on the balustrade and fish in the water, or catching butterflies. The life of elite women was mostly restricted to the so-called inner quarters, meaning the garden and inner courts of the house. This painting idea...