Painting of Shelves Full of Books on Ten-panel Folding Screen

This kind of painting called chaeggado depicts furniture such as bookshelves including books, antique bronze vessels, stationery accoutrements, and flowers. The word “冊架圖(chaeggado)”first appeared as one of the topics about stationery accoutrements among questions on the examination for court painters. There are two types of Chaeggado. One format has books piled up on the shelves as depicted in this screen. The books are divided into two types: covered and uncovered, with no other objects depicted. The other format has antique bronze vessels, stationery accoutrements, and flowers arranged together with books in a space compartmented by shelves. These books and objects symbolize the hobbies of collecting fine stationery accoutrements and decorating one’s study. This painting seems to have relevance to one of Qing dynasty China’s popular painting genres, “painting of various treasures”or “painting of a house with various treasures”such as “Painting of Various Treasures”known as the work of Italian Jesuit missionary Giuseppe Castiglione(Lang Shining 郎世寧, 1688-1766).