NOTES
This decorative screen made for placement on a desk or table has a square marble panel at the center surrounded by a wooden frame. In the image, two figures in European clothing are kneeling in front of a table with three officials. One official appears to be affixing a seal and signature to a document. Looking on is another figure in regal clothing seated at right, flanked by attendants and other officials nearby.
This narrative imagery resembles those of sinners begging for mercy in traditional Chinese Buddhist illustrations of the Ten Kings of Hell. However, the presence of figures in European clothing does not have a clear explanation and awaits further research. On the back of the marble panel is an unrelated poetic inscription about traveling in a landscape, written in semi-cursive script with the remnants of two seals impressed in red. The panel’s frame consists of 10 rectangular ornamental sections, each enclosing a quatrefoil shape using an openwork technique.
