Wall hanging of Tainan City with Fort Zeelandia and Fort Provintia

late 18th century

This deerskin panoramic map portrays the geographic, social, and cultural characteristics of historic Taiwan. It is one of three that survive. The use of leather and the two Dutch-built forts of this image testify to cultural exchanges between China and the West. Prominent residents of Tainan are carried in litters, seated in sedan chairs. Three women go about with half-opened parasols––an emancipated custom of Taiwanese women not enjoyed by their Han Chinese counterparts. A fortune teller announces the Lunar New Year with a message written on a scroll, “Spring is here and enters ten thousand homes.”

Of the five cartouches at the bottom, two are bird-and-flower pictures and two depict offerings of spring flowers, coral, peacock feathers, and fruit to celebrate New Year’s Day. The fifth cartouche is a fan-shaped “painting of a painting” where a red-robed official points to a rising sun: a rebus expressing wishes for a promotion to come soon. The corners illustrate the Four Scholarly Pursuits (siyi): zither, chess, books, and painting.

Ink and color on deerskin leather

58 x 80 3/4 in. (147.32 x 205.11 cm)

Gift of Joseph and Molly Iwano

96.40

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Chronicles of a Global East, Oct. 20, 2022 - Oct. 22, 2023.

Published ReferencesChih-chang, Lai and Wei Te-wen. Tainan's Antique Maps in the 400 Year History. Tainan: SMC Publishing Ltd, 2018; p. 229, reproduced fig. III.7.

Tzeng, Shai-Shu. "Grenzen Zwischen Ost Und West Überschreitend: Topografische Ansichten der Insel Taiwan auf Lederwandbehängen des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts," [Crossing Borders Between East and West: Topographical Views of the Island of Taiwan on Leather Wall Hangings from the 18th and 19th Centuries] in Band 14 Vorträge aus dem Warburg-Haus (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020): pp. 107-113, 119-121, reproduced p. 108-11, figs. 12, 13, 14, 17.

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