Chinese Scroll Depicting Gao Ancestral / Family Tree

A whole family, generation by generation, and every one of them accounted for.

This scroll depicting the Gao family tree comes from China, 19th century, in pigment on paper mounted to silk. Chinese families hung ancestral scrolls like this at New Year and on other occasions, honoring the dead with offerings and keeping the lineage in view. A painted hall fills the top, with seated elders, attendants in pale blue robes and a gateway below where a horse waits. Between them, rows of tablets list names in fine characters. Dark blue silk frames it all. 92.2 inches high, over seven and a half feet.

Nobody at this family reunion had an excuse for forgetting a name.