Wrist Rest with Scene from "The West Chamber"

China

Not on view

The motif of a woman reading a letter is most likely based on a woodblock print illustrating a scene from a fourteenth-century play known as either The West Chamber or The Romance of the West Chamber. This play, which tells of the convoluted romance between a young scholar and a beautiful woman, is one of the most well known in Chinese history, and allusions to some of its more famous moments are often found in the visual arts.

Wrist Rest with Scene from "The West Chamber", Bamboo, China

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