Artwork Page for Beggars and Street Characters

Details / Information for Beggars and Street Characters

Beggars and Street Characters

流氓圖

1516

Zhou Chen 周臣

(Chinese, c. 1450–c. 1536)
Culture
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Medium
Handscroll; ink and light color on paper
Measurements
Overall: 31.9 x 244.5 cm (12 9/16 x 96 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 1964.94
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

Although Zhou Chen's original composition was an album of 24 figures, today it is mounted as two handscrolls, one in the Cleveland collection and one in the Honolulu Museum of Art.

Description

Zhou Chen from Suzhou provides rare depictions of impoverished people that once filled the city’s markets and streets. Despite Suzhou’s prosperity, its rapid growth polarized society, including the wealthy and those who had deserted their farmlands, who were without homes, unemployed, or sick. Amid these are figures who inspire fear rather than empathy. The painting may thus be informed by local practices at the end of the lunar year, in which street beggars, in exchange for food or money, would dress up like ghosts and demons to drive out evil forces.
A handscroll depicts twelve sections showing people with light skin tones and different lengths of wiry or curly black hair. Dressed in jagged-edged gray and white rags, they engage in different activities such as eating and playing a drum, one on their knees, one holding a baby, and four appearing with animals. Columns of black Chinese calligraphy appear to the left of the people and a row in larger, blocky characters appears on the right (see "Inscriptions").

Beggars and Street Characters

1516

Zhou Chen

(Chinese, c. 1450–c. 1536)
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

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