Page 26 - 2020 December 10 Christie's Paris Arts of Asia Chinese Art

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RARE JARRE EN PORCELAINE BLEU BLANC, GUAN
CHINE, DYNASTIE MING, MARQUE A SIX CARACTERES
EN BLEU SOUS COUVERTE DANS UN DOUBLE CERCLE ET
EPOQUE WANLI (1573-1619)
L'extérieur est peint de couleurs vives en bleu profond d'une scène continue de The depiction of children in Chinese art has its roots in Buddhist beliefs
jeunes garçons rieurs jouant dans un jardin. L'épaulement est orné d'une frise influenced by Daoism. Chinese Buddhism saw the soul newly born into
de motifs géométriques. La base porte une marque Wanli à six caractères en paradise as an infant, although this is not how it is described in the Sukhavati-
bleu sous couverte dans un double cercle.
vyuha, ‘The Sutra on the Buddha of Eternal Life’. This change to the Indian view
Hauteur: 28 cm. (11 in.)
was almost certainly due in part to the influence of the Shangqing Daoist vision
€8,000-12,000 US$9,400-14,000 of the self in embryonic state. It was also the Chinese monk, Zhi Dun (AD 314-
£7,300-11,000 366) who first described the re-born soul as entering Sukhavati, ‘The Place of
Great Bliss’, through the calyx of a lotus flower. By the Tang dynasty images of
PROVENANCE: round-cheeked children were no longer confined to religious art, but began to
Property from a French private collection.
appear in a secular context as an auspicious symbol.
A RARE BLUE AND WHITE 'BOYS' JAR, GUAN
CHINA, MING DYNASTY, WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN As early as the Southern Song period, the imagery of boys at play, set in a
UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN DOUBLE CIRCLES AND garden scene became a favoured theme in paintings popularised by the
OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)) Southern Song court artist, Su Hanchen, who was active during early 12th
明萬曆 青花百子圖罐 雙圈六字楷書款 Century. An example of Su Hanchen’s painting is in the National Palace
Museum collection, Taipei, entitled ‘Boys at Play in an Autumn Garden’,
來源: illustrated in Zhongguo Huihua Quanji, vol. 3, Zhejiang renmin meishu
法國私人珍藏
chubanshe, p. 140, no. 100. The Southern Song depiction of children with
characteristic shaven heads, rounded faces and wide eyes from the children
painted on the present jar. The theme of ‘a hundred boys’ became symbolic of
progeny and fulfillment of Confucian ideals in education, and the advancement
of sons. As such, this types of pictorial image was propagated on a wide range
of decorative objects, including porcelain, jade, textile and lacquerware.
This ‘hundred boys’ pattern depicting the figures of boys in a larger format is
seen on compressed ovoid jars such as the earlier Jiajing-marked examples,
the first from the J.M. Hu Family and Jingguantang collections, sold at
Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2007, lot 1738; and the other, also from
the J.M. Hu Family collection, is now in the Tianminlou Foundation, illustrated
in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, vol. 1, Hong Kong,
1987, pl. 35. Two jars of this same shape and design, both with a Jiajing reign
mark, are known, the first was sold at Christie’s London, 25 November 1974,
lot 235; and the other is in the Shanghai Museum collection, illustrated by Lu
Minghua, Mingdai Guanyao Ciqi, Shanghai renmen chubanshe, 2007, p. 156,
no. 3-82. Jars of this pattern continued into the Wanli reign as can be seen by
the present example.
The present jar is rare in that it presents the same theme, more complex in
composition, with the figures in a smaller scale in a larger garden landscape.
See a closely related blue and white ‘boys’ jar, measuring 29.2 cm., also
bearing a Wanli mark, from a Japanese private collection, sold in Christie’s
Hong Kong, 27 May 2008, lot 1853.

(other side)

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