18TH CENTURY

The scene on this kesi panel depicts the birthday celebration of Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West. A closely related silk kesi panel, but with a gold background, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji - Gongyi Meishu Bian, vol. 7, Beijing, 1987, pl. 179. The Palace Museum example is lacking the upper border of shou characters and dragon and phoenix, but has a similarly-worked scene of Xiwangmu descending on a crane, to greet immortals waiting on the riverscape below.