Altar Frontal

Decorative textile panels like this were used to enliven altars in homes and temples during festive occasions. Most frontals are composed of two sections: a valance (upper section) and a main register, which are decorated with symbols appropriate to the use of the altar. Formal frontals like this one containing imperial dragon imagery were probably used on the ancestral altar tables of the nobility or within Confucian and Buddhist temples under court patronage.