BIOMBO

In China, screens were part of both interior and exterior decoration. In interiors, since there are no dividing walls in the house, the folding screen is conceived as a movable wall that can be placed in different positions according to the needs. In exteriors, it is often seen in traditional paintings, as a spatial frame of reference for a garden, used in turn to paint landscape scenes on its surface. The use of folding screens, composed of several sheets joined by hinges, is related to the beginning of the export of this type of furniture to the West. Coromandel screens, made of lacquer with a pictorial technique or inlaid with semi-precious stones, decorated European salons in the 18th and 19th centuries. Generally, the scenes that decorate the screens allude to Taoist legends, to symbolic associations of flowers or present calligraphies of poetic content. I.C.F. / Extracted from: Isabel CERVERA FERNÁNDEZ: Fundación Rodríguez-Acosta. Asian Art Collection. Granada, 2002.