The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Ten-paneled folding screen, each panel with a column of three bronze vessels alternating with with rows of text and ending with a circular disk divided into four sections of text. These are all embroidered in gold thread on black rectangles outlined in a white border that extend three-fourths of the way down the panels, with a solid field of green-brown and yellow-brown organic shapes below. Each vessel features various, finely embroidered geometric designs.

Ancient Chinese Bronzes

late 1800s

Korea, Joseon dynasty

(1392–1910)
Ten-panel folding screen; embroidery, gold silk threads on black silk
Each panel: 147.3 x 34.5 cm (58 x 13 9/16 in.); Overall framed: 224.9 x 493.2 cm (88 9/16 x 194 3/16 in.)
Gift of the Honorable Joseph P. Carroll, KM, and Roberta Carroll, M.D., in recognition of the contribution of Marjorie Williams to the development of The Cleveland Museum of Art 2020.86
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The written text that accompanies each bronze vessel depicted in this embroidered screen expresses the idea of evoking good fortune and wishing for many children.

Description

This embroidered folding screen depicts a set of bronze vessels. While the subject of bronze vessels is part of mainstream male elite culture, which centered on ancestral rituals, the written text that accompanies each bronze vessel expresses the idea of evoking good fortune and wishing for many children. The is perhaps related to the idea that those who diligently perform rituals for the spirit of ancestors could have all their aspirations realized.
  • Kwon Ok-yeon [1923-2011], Seoul, Korea
    ?-1978
    Roger Chambard [1904-1982], Paris, France, to the Honorable Joseph P. Carroll and Roberta Carroll, MD
    1978-2020
    The Honorable Joseph P. Carroll and Prof. Roberta L. Carroll, MD, New York, NY, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2020-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 French Ambassador to Republic of Korea, 1959-1969
  • Kim, Yeong-suk. "Junijongjeongdo jasubyeongpung gochal: osaka sagai siripbangmulgwan sojang 준이종정도(尊彛鐘鼎圖) 자수병풍 고찰: 오사카 사가이 시립박물관 소장." National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Munhwajae 13 (1998): 221-254. www.koreascience.or.kr
    Beyond Folding Screens [조선, 병풍의 나라]. Seoul: Amorepacific Museum of Art, 2018.
    Ch'a, Mi-rae, Kwi-suk An, Cleveland Museum of Art, and 국외소재문화재재단. The Korean Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Edited by An Min-hŭi. First edition, English ed. Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Series, 16. Seoul, Republic of Korea: Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 350-351, no. 004
  • Gold Needles: Embroidery Arts from Korea. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 7-October 25, 2020).
  • {{cite web|title=Ancient Chinese Bronzes|url=false|author=|year=late 1800s|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.86