FEATURED EXHIBIT 

 for January 



Chinese 

 CALENDAR SCREEN 



By Kenneth Starr, Curator Asiatic Archaeology and Ethnology 



Pictured on our 

 cover is what 

 Western visitors to 

 China call a "cal- 

 endar screen," so 

 named because the 

 floral motifs domi- 

 nating the twelve 

 panels of the screen 

 represent the twelve 

 months of the year. 

 Although not so 

 common as the rep- 

 resentations of the 

 four seasons so fre- 

 quently seen in 

 Chinese art, these 

 calendar screens traditionally have been 

 prized as decorative pieces. The speci- 

 men illustrated is remarkable because 

 the decorative elements on the face of 

 the screen are formed from thin strips of 

 wood upon which are glued bits of the 

 brilliant blue plumage of the kingfisher. 

 Made very likely either in Soochou or in 

 Yangchou in Kiangsu Province, and 



Page 8 



dating probably from the nineteenth 

 century, the screen was acquired for the 

 Museum in China by Dr. Berthold Lau- 

 fer in the course of the Blackstone Ex- 

 pedition, 1908-1910. 



Measuring nearly eight and one-half 

 feet in length by slightly more than three 

 and one-half feet in height, the screen 

 consists of a twelve-sectioned frame of 

 "blackwood," into which are set twelve 

 decorated wooden panels. The backs of 

 the panels are admirable in their own 

 right, for they are lacquered in dull red 

 flecked with gold, but it is the front faces 

 of the panels that command attention, 

 for they bear flamboyantly decorative 

 motifs outlined against fine black velvet. 

 The panels are divided by the construc- 

 tion of the wooden frame into three 

 groups of designs : the upper groups por- 

 tray various traditional objects symbolic 

 of Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk 

 lore; the large central motifs show some 

 flower or plant; and the lower design 

 areas depict ceramic and bronze pieces, 

 most of them containing floral sprays. 



It is the brilliant central floral designs 

 dominating the front face of the screen 

 that are associated with the months, and 

 so give the screen its name. Just as in 

 the United States we associate particular 

 flowers and plants with certain holidays 

 or seasons of the year — tulips with spring, 

 roses with summer, chrysanthemums with 

 autumn, and poinsettias with Christmas 

 and winter — so also the Chinese associ- 

 ate various flowers and plants with the 

 flow of the seasons — the plum with spring, 

 the orchid or lotus with summer, the 

 chrysanthemum with fall, and the bam- 

 boo or peony with winter. 



Looking at the screen from right to 

 left, in Chinese fashion, we see that the 

 flowers or plants represented are as fol- 

 lows: 1st month, plum, the "prunus" so 

 common in Chinese and Japanese art; 

 2nd month, weeping willow and ch'a- 

 mei flower; 3rd month, magnolia; 4th 

 month, peach; 5th month, the herba- 

 ceous peony; 6th month, poppy; 7th 

 month, lotus, symbolic not only of sum- 

 mer, but also of Buddhism, particularly, 

 and Taoism; 8th month, grape; 9th 

 month, rose; 10th month, chrysanthe- 

 mum, one of the oldest cultivated flow- 

 ers in China and generally accepted as 

 the symbol of autumn; 11th month, bam- 

 boo; and 12th month, the tree peony, 

 which, like the plum, lends itself to in- 

 door cultivation and so becomes a sym- 

 bol of winter. 



The dominant color in these floral mo- 

 tifs is the bright natural blue of the king- 

 fisher's feathers, with pink being next 

 most prominent, and with tinges of such 

 other colors as canary yellow, Chinese 

 red, purple, and several shades of brown. 

 The choice of flowers and their arrange- 

 ment is arbitrary on the part of the ar- 

 tisan. 



Such objects as this screen, it must be 

 emphasized, cannot be judged as botan- 

 ically accurate. Neither should they be 

 considered as fine art. Rather, such 

 pieces must be recognized for what they 

 represent, namely, the decorative, but 

 overrefined work for which one class of 

 Chinese artisanship is renowned. Seen 

 so, our screen deserves some praise for 

 the ingenuity, skill, and patience in- 

 volved in its making. 



The screen is exhibited in the Chinese 

 gallery (Hall 24), at the north end of the 

 second floor, near the east stairway. 



PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS 



