Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk Analysis

This scroll entitled ‘Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk’ is a Chinese realist masterpiece painted by the Emperor Huizong (1082-1135) in the Song Dynasty. This painting, which now resides in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, interestingly is a careful copy of the original painting by a professional Tang court painter, Zhang Xuan (AD 713-755). At the time of the Song dynasty, the courtly painting style during the Song Dynasty was characterised by a focus on technical skills and realistic expression. (Powers, Tsiang, 384) There was a lot of emphasis on depicting the physical landscape in its most natural form. Many paintings from the Song dynasty often demonstrated these realistic qualities through the use of different shades of paints and meticulous brush strokes such as gongbi.

The scroll of ‘Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk’ though not a scenic painting, reflects the Song’s focus on returning to the past. Unlike the Tang dynasty before them, the Song Emperors such as Huizong himself decided to train their progress internally rather than
Such sericulture was one led by the empress as part of her imperial duties. Here you see the women partaking in silk making activities that are believed to ensure a good production for the year to come. The scroll composes of three separate scenes, each scene representing a part of the silk weaving process. The first scene, we have four women using wooden pestles to pound the silk. Moving on you see two courtesans, one sitting on a chair sewing and the other preparing the silk thread on the floor. Last but not least you have four figures ironing out the silk, which is the last step of the process. Two of which are palace maids assisting the courtesans with the charcoal for ironing and stretching out the silk. A little girl is also depicted in the scroll running under the silk being ironed and having fun on her