Page 261 - Christies Japanese and Korean Art Sept 22 2020 NYC

This screen features peach trees laden with fruit in the land of throughout the composition or fly toward the large red sun,
eternal life. Cranes, crashing waves, mist-shrouded mountains, another classic longevity symbol and, here, a decorative anchor to
waterfall and lush flowers complete the fantastical landscape. The the elaborate groupings of scenery and animals below. Paintings of
peach is synonymous with immortality as the tree is said to bear the Ten Signs of Long Life theme do not necessarily depict all ten
fruit once in 3000 years. The imagery is in the tradition of imagery symbols and can be satisfied, as here, by peaches, cranes, fungus,
of The Ten Signs of Long Life, auspicious symbols found in the mythical tortoises, deer and the sun.
Land of Immortals associated with the Daoist immortality cult
that developed in China during the Han dynasty. Because of their For earlier prototypes, see the screen entitled Cranes and Peaches
magical potency, the emblems of long life were immensely popular of Immortality, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Hopes and
in all strata of Korean society during the Joseon dynasty and they Aspirations: Decorative Painting of Korea, exh. cat. (Asian Art Museum
appear in most of the decorative arts of that period. of San Francisco, 1998), cat. no. 9; Hongnam Kim, ed., Korean Arts
of the Eighteenth Century: Splendor and Simplicity (New York: Asia
The red heart-shaped plants that run along the rocks represent Society, 1994), 116-17; and Charles Lachman, The Ten Symbols of
the fungus of immortality, a sort of magic mushroom said to Longevity (Eugene, OR: The Jordan Schnitzer Museum, University
bestow eternal life on those who eat it. Pairs of cranes are perched of Oregon, 2006).