Table screen with a scene of seclusion in mountains

玉屏

Jade Screens
During the Song dynasty (960–1279) a large marble or painted screen was often placed as a back wall behind furniture in a living room, library, or entrance hall. Later these items were produced in smaller sizes so that these screens could be set on a desk, table, or cabinet in the studio. By the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644– 1911) dynasties, a jade table screen, often with decoration on both sides and resting on a wooden stand, had come to represent the height of fashion among China's educated elite.

清朝梮白玉深山楏居圖檉方屏

Made of semitranslucent nephrite, this table screen is worked on only one side. The relief depicts a man with a walking stick crossing a narrow bridge toward a thatched pavilion under pine trees. This scene was likely adapted from a painting on the traditional subject of the scholar living in seclusion. Such depictions celebrate the leisure moments after retreat from urban life, often depicting the scholar strolling along a riverbank in search of nature and peace. Jade is so hard it cannot be carved; it must be abraded, a slow and painstaking process.

Creating landscape scenes on jade is challenging and was not common until the 1500s.

Even at that time, effects such as those conveyed by ink washes in a landscape painting were impossible to create in jade. Instead, jade workers relied on deep or shallow relief, openwork, and intricate cutting to create landscapes that were unique to their medium.