Two Antique 19th-century Chinese Pith Paintings, Torture Sce...

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£80 - £120

Two Antique 19th-century Chinese Pith Paintings, Torture Scenes. Well-preserved Chinese pith paintings depicting gruesome torture scenes. Measure 19cm by 25cm. The skin areas of the image (faces and limbs) are painted on the verso of the pith, giving an enhanced sense three-dimensionality. This subject held particular fascination for westerners in late Qing dynasty China. They could be direct witness to the Chinese judicial system, in the court or on the street, where torture was meted out as both an interrogration tool and as retributative punishment. A significant element of the retribution was humiliation and dishonour, and the punishments were therefore carried out as public spectacle. Pith paper behaves very differently from conventional rag or woodpulp paper. Rather than being plant fibres matted together into a layer, pith is composed of plant cells sliced directly from the inner tissue of the Tetrapanex papyrifera plant, native to Southern China and Taiwan. This unique composition makes it extremely vulnerable to damage by moisture and other environmental factors, becoming very brittle over time and subject to distinctive cracking.