China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) / 1516
Beggars and Street Characters
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Beggars and Street Characters as painting (China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) · 1516).
Although Zhou Chen's original composition was an album of 24 figures, today it is mounted as two handscrolls, one in the Cleveland collection and one in the Honolulu Museum of Art.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this painting as Handscroll; ink and light color on paper and credits Zhou Chen (Chinese, c. 1450–c. 1536).
The museum's collection notes: Zhou Chen from Suzhou provides rare depictions of impoverished people that once filled the city’s markets and streets. Despite Suzhou’s prosperity, its rapid growth polarized society, including the wealthy and those who had deserted their farmlands, who were without homes, unemployed, or sick. Amid these are figures who inspire fear rather than empathy. The painting may thus be informed by local practices at the end of the lunar year, in which street beggars, in exchange for food or money, would dress up like ghosts and demons to drive out evil forces.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtBeggars and Street CharactersOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.