Album Leaf from The Grand Wedding of the Guangxu Emperor (Guangxu dahun tu)

The grand wedding of the Guangxu Emperor (r. 1875–1908) was held near the end of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Due to the artistic efforts of the Imperial Household Department’s vice-director Qingkuan (surname Zhao, 1848–1927) and other painters, the opulence of the wedding ceremonies was realistically depicted in the album The Grand Wedding of the Guangxu Emperor (Guangxu dahun tu), in which the nuptials held in the outer court are shown with brilliant colors in vivid detail. This album comprises a wealth of resources for research into the imperial wedding ceremonies of the Qing dynasty. The paintings afford an unrivaled view of the Forbidden City’s primary architecture as decorated with lanterns and other ornamentation for the Guangxu Emperor’s wedding.
This album leaf depicts one scene from the ceremonial procedures known as "bestowing the title of Empress on the bride" (celi li), when the emperor is at the Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihe dian) where he personally conducted a formal inspection of the gold album (jince) and gold seal (jinbao) for use in the official appointment and dispatched the selected envoy (shijie) to carry the gold banner (jinjie) used to lead the bridal entourage.