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Lot Essay
Silk altar frontals contained a valence and main register, and were suspended around the front and both sides of a table, covering the legs. They did not cover the table top. Often they were made in sets of three, for two smaller tables and one large one. While often called altar frontals, these panels were also often used in the home.
Yellow altar frontals embroidered with dragons, such as the present lot, were of the most formal and were likely used on the ancestral altar tables of high-ranking nobles, or in Confucian and Buddhist temples at court. Because of the seals on the pelmet, this altar frontal was likely used in the Pure Fragrance Monastary. Embroidered silk altar frontals with three dragons, like the present panel, are particularly rare. One example, featuring three dragons on the front with a valence embroidered with further dragons, is pictured in a photograph of the Qian Qing Gong (Palace of Heavenly Purity) in the Forbidden City, Beijing, on an altar placed in front of an elaborately carved throne, illustrated by Wan Yi, Wang Shuqing and Lu Yanzheng, Qingdai Gongting Shenghuo, 1985, p. 192, no. 277. The photograph is used to illustrate the Qianlong Emperor’s family banquet, illustrating the imperial usage of yellow altar frontals with dragons in the court. For an example of other frontals in situ, see a photograph of the interior of the Palace of Earthly Repose, where sacrificial banquets were held, reproduced by Wan-go Weng and Yang Boda in The Palace Museum: Peking, New York, 1982, pp. 54 and 55.
Yellow altar frontals embroidered with dragons, such as the present lot, were of the most formal and were likely used on the ancestral altar tables of high-ranking nobles, or in Confucian and Buddhist temples at court. Because of the seals on the pelmet, this altar frontal was likely used in the Pure Fragrance Monastary. Embroidered silk altar frontals with three dragons, like the present panel, are particularly rare. One example, featuring three dragons on the front with a valence embroidered with further dragons, is pictured in a photograph of the Qian Qing Gong (Palace of Heavenly Purity) in the Forbidden City, Beijing, on an altar placed in front of an elaborately carved throne, illustrated by Wan Yi, Wang Shuqing and Lu Yanzheng, Qingdai Gongting Shenghuo, 1985, p. 192, no. 277. The photograph is used to illustrate the Qianlong Emperor’s family banquet, illustrating the imperial usage of yellow altar frontals with dragons in the court. For an example of other frontals in situ, see a photograph of the interior of the Palace of Earthly Repose, where sacrificial banquets were held, reproduced by Wan-go Weng and Yang Boda in The Palace Museum: Peking, New York, 1982, pp. 54 and 55.