Page 133 - Christie's Hong Kong November 29, 2022 Fine Chinese Works of Art

fig. 1 Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei fig. 2 Sea and Skies with a Rising Sun (detail)
圖一 國立故宮博物院藏品 Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
圖二 《海天旭日圖》(局部）北京故宮博物院藏品

Harmony and Integrity – The Yongzheng Emperor and His Times, Taipei, xiangyun five-coloured or multi-coloured auspicious clouds - auguring
2009, pp. 116-117, no. I-57)(fig. 1). prosperity. When the Tibetan monk Halima (Deshin Shekpa 1384-
1415) performed rituals for the Yongle Emperor’s parents at Nanjing in
The form of the current horse-hoof-shaped water pots would have 1407, deities and auspicious creatures were reported to have appeared,
been both aesthetically pleasing and practical, while their decoration and in the sky were multi-coloured clouds, rainbows and flowers.
was achieved using a decorative technique largely abandoned since the On the orders of the Yongle Emperor, this event was recorded on a
th
15 century Ming dynasty Chenghua reign (1465-87), but now revived handscroll, now in the Tibet Museum (illustrated in Ming – 50 Years
in a particularly attractive form. This was the doucai technique, which that Changed China, C. Clunas and J. Harrison-Hall (eds.), London,
entailed painting outlines in underglaze blue and filling the areas 2014, p. 239, fig. 208.
within those outlines using overglaze enamels. A few examples of this
technique had been produced in the middle Ming period, but these The Qing dramatist and poet Kong Shanren (1648-1718), who was
had been relatively heavy, both in weight and in the visual impact of a 64th generation descendant of Confucius, referred to ‘celebratory
their decoration. Some, mainly large, items were made in Kangxi’s clouds’ in his most famous play Taohua shan (The Peach-Blossom Fan).
reign, but in the Yongzheng period doucai pieces, such as these water In the play he refers to twelve auspicious omens, including celebratory
pots, were made which combined the delicacy of the Chenghua vessels clouds, phoenixes and qilins. Such omens were often mentioned to
with the new famille rose palette of enamels, which was perfected during the Yongzheng Emperor in memorials and he regarded such omens
Yongzheng’s reign. It is interesting that the Yongzheng emperor is as compliments to his virtue and filial piety. When such sightings
recorded as preferring small exquisite objects, such as the current pair were reported to the emperor on the occasion of his birthday, he was
of water pots, to large showy ones. particularly appreciative regarding this as evidence of the devotion
of his officials. It is probably for this reason that clouds appear so
The choice of multi-coloured clouds to decorate these water pots is prominently in Giuseppe Castiglione’s (1688-1766) handscroll Sea and
significant. Horse-hoof water pots with moulded cloud decoration, Skies with a Rising Sun preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing (see
usually under a celadon glaze, had been made in the Kangxi reign (see Portrayals from a Brush Divine – A Special Exhibition on the Tricentennial of
The Tsui Museum of Art – Chinese Ceramics IV Qing Dynasty, op. cit., Giuseppe Castiglione’s Arrival in China, Taipei, 2015, pp. 42-3, no. I-09)
pl. 2), but these were monochrome. Clouds were valued as bringers of (fig. 2). With expanses of waves and clouds dominating the painting
rain (to water the crops), and by extension were auspicious, giving rise the work was a symbol of respect and praise for the emperor. The
to phrases such as xiangyun (auspicious clouds) and qingyun (celebratory current pair of water pots encircled as they are by clouds would have
clouds). The depiction of multi-coloured clouds combined this view expressed the same sentiment on a much more intimate scale, and may
of clouds as auspicious with the traditional Chinese beliefs regarding have been commissioned on the occasion of the emperor’s birthday.
the so-called wuse (five colours) and so was often referred to as wuse

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