Folding Screen - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A folding screen is a piece of free-standing furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

which consists of several frames or panels connected by hinge

Hinge

A hinge is a type of bearing that connects two solid objects, typically allowing only a limited angle of rotation between them. Two objects connected by an ideal hinge rotate relative to each other about a fixed axis of rotation. Hinges may be made of flexible material or of moving components...

s. It can be made in a variety of designs and with different kinds of materials. Screens have many practical and decorative uses. It originated from ancient China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

and eventually spread to other countries.

History

Screens date back to China during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty

Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as...

period (771-256 BCE). These were initially one-panel screens in contrast to folding screens. Folding screens were invented during the Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

(206 BCE – 220 CE). Depictions of those foldings screens have been found in Han Dynasty era tombs, such as one in Zhucheng, Shandong Province. A folding screen was often decorated with beautiful art, major themes included mythology, scenes of palace life, and nature. It is often associated with intrigue and romance in the literature

Chinese literature

Chinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...

of China as, for example, a young lady in love could take a curious peek hidden from behind a folding screen. An example of such an occurrence of the folding screen would be in the classical novel Dream of the Red Chamber
Dream of the Red Chamber
Dream of the Red Chamber , composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It was composed in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. It is considered to be a masterpiece of Chinese vernacular literature and is generally acknowledged to be a pinnacle of...

by Cao Xueqin

Cao Xueqin

Cao Xueqin was a Qing Dynasty Chinese writer, best known as the author of Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature...

.

Folding screens were originally made from wooden panels and painted on lacquered

Lacquerware

Lacquerware are objects decoratively covered with lacquer. The lacquer is sometimes inlaid or carved. Lacquerware includes boxes, tableware, buttons and even coffins painted with lacquer in cultures mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere.-History:...

surfaces, eventually folding screens made from paper or silk

Silk

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...

became popular too. Even though folding screens were known to have been used since antiquity

Ancient history

Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...

, it became rapidly popular during the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

(618–907). During the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

, folding screens were considered ideal ornaments for many painters to display their paintings

Chinese painting

Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. The earliest paintings were not representational but ornamental; they consisted of patterns or designs rather than pictures. Early pottery was painted with spirals, zigzags, dots, or animals...

and shufa (calligraphy) on. Many artists painted on paper or silk and applied it onto the folding screen. There were two distinct artistic folding screens mentioned in historical literature of the era. One of it was known as the huaping and the other was known as the shuping . It was not uncommon for people to commission folding screens from artist like Cao Ba or later artists like Guo Xi

Guo Xi

Guo Xi Chinese landscape painter from Henan Province who lived during the Northern Song dynasty. One text entitled "The Lofty Message of Forest and Streams" is attributed to him. The work covers a variety of themes centered around the appropriate way of painting a landscape...

from the Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

(960–1279). The landscape paintings on folding screens reached its height during the Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

. The lacquer techniques

Lacquerware

for the Coromandel screen

Coromandel Screen

A Coromandel Screen is a wooden folding screen coated in dark lacquer that is carved before being painted with gold or varied colors. Some may be decorated with precious stones....

s, which is known as kuancai (literally "incised colors"), emerged during the late Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

(1368-1644) and was applied to folding screens to create dark screens incised, painted, and inlaid with art of mother-of-pearl, ivory, or other materials. Up to around 30 layers of lacquer could be used, each layer could have art incised, painted, and inlaid, which would made the folding screens stand out against its dark backdrop.

Folding screens were introduced in the Late Middle Ages

Late Middle Ages

The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....

to Europe. In the 17th and 18th century, many folding screens were being imported from China to Europe. Especially the French had a certain admiration and desire for the Chinese folding screens along with the rest of Europe and they began importing large lacquered folding screens adorned with art. Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist thought, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. She was the founder of one of the most famous fashion brands, Chanel...

was an avid collector of Chinese folding screens and is believed to have owned 32 folding screens of which eight of them were housed in her apartment at 31 rue Cambon, Paris. She once said:

I've loved Chinese screens since I was eighteen years old. I nearly fainted with joy when, entering a Chinese shop, I saw a Coromandel for the first time. Screens were the first thing I bought.

Uses

Although the folding screen was originally from China, it can now be found in many interior design

Interior design

Interior design describes a group of various yet related projects that involve turning an interior space into an effective setting for the range of human activities are to take place there. An interior designer is someone who conducts such projects...

s throughout the world. Some of the first uses of the folding screen was rather practical. It was used to prevent draft in people's homes as is indicated in the hanzi (Chinese characters) of its Chinese name (屏 screen; 風 wind). It long bestowed a sense of privacy. In classical times, folding screens were often placed in rooms to be used as dressing screens for ladies. Folding screens can be set up to partition a large room and change the interior features of the space. Sometimes the entrance from one room to another needs a false wall for the aesthetics and to create a desirable atmosphere by hiding certain features of a place, like doors to a kitchen, as for example when hosting guests. As many folding screens have fine artistic designs and art on them, they can fit well as decorative items in an interior design of a home.

History

Uses

See also