Good Fortune to All: A Chinese Lantern Festival in Nanjing
This rare group of paintings depicts a Lantern Festival celebration that took place during the late 1500s to early 1600s in the city of Nanjing. On view briefly, these hanging scrolls feature the Aoshan lantern mountain, a huge artificial landscape illuminated with more than 100 colorful lanterns. The Lantern Festival occurs on the 15th day of the first lunar month concluding the fortnight of New Year celebrations in China, with the intention of bringing good fortune to all.
Ming Dynasty, Wanli Reign, The Lantern Festival (Shangyuan Jie), probably 1592–1620
Organized by the Norton Museum of Art. This exhibition was made possible by the generosity of John and Heidi Niblack.