Lunchtime Lecture: The Pictures of Ancient Playthings Revisited: Making and Remaking a Masterpiece

The eighteenth-century painting Pictures of Ancient Playthings, on display in the V&A Museum’s T.T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art, is among the most intriguing – and longest – paintings globally. At over 24m in length, the scroll depicts several hundred jades, bronzes, porcelains, glass, bamboo, and other precious art objects from the imperial collections of China’s last dynasty, the Qing (1644–1912) in minute detail. However, the painting’s purpose and function have remained a mystery. New findings - presented here by Ricarda Brosch - show how archival and art historical research can reveal the complex ways in which the painting was made and remade as a form of ancestor worship at the Qing imperial court.

Ricarda Brosch is Assistant Curator in the Asia Department, East Asia section at the V&A Museum, London. Ricarda specialises in Chinese art and design and has lived and worked in China for over 3 and a half years. She joined the V&A in 2019 and prior to that worked at the Asian Art Museum in Berlin.

To see our full Summer 2023 Lunchtime Lecture Programme, click 'Download Programme' on the right of this screen.