Page 97 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Chinese Art
P. 97
This luxurious moonflask celebrates the doucai scroll, they reveal the Qianlong Emperor’s
creative breadth of porcelain production infatuation with portents of good fortune, forming
during the Qianlong period (1736-1795) and the wish for ‘longevity and fortune as high as the
represents the Emperor’s personal taste which sky’.
gravitated towards artistically complex designs.
It is particularly notable for its successful A very small group of vessels of this attractive
incorporation of several design techniques on an type that set a famille-rose scene within a doucai
early-Ming inspired form: a doucai formal scroll border is known and is so close in style, that
surrounding a famille-rose scene on one side they appear to have been created by the same
and an inscription on the reverse, and shaped hand; the companion to the present piece, sold
handles. By combining these different elements, in our London rooms, 14th November 2001, lot
the result is not only aesthetically striking but 116, and again at Christie’s New York, 15th/16th
also draws attention to the Qianlong Emperor’s March 2015, lot 3160; and two vases in the Palace
eclectic taste that shaped the development of Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Yeh Pei-Lang,
porcelain during his reign. Gems of the Doucai, Taipei, 1993, pls 112 and
113. Characteristic of this group is the sense
The eye is immediately drawn to the delicate of harmony of that has been cleverly achieved
medallion of flowers which have been elegantly through the use of iron-red and green enamel as
rendered in famille-rose enamels and encircled a compositional device. By weaving these colours
with a fine gilt-painted line, correlating with the throughout the overall design, as seen in the ruyi
inscription on the reverse. In style, the rendering handles and formal doucai lotus scroll to the large
of the scene closely follows the flower paintings chrysanthemum bloom on the present piece,
of one of China’s most eminent artists, Yun all the exquisitely rendered elements not only
Shouping (1633-1690). Yun, whose sobriquet interact cohesively but complement each other.
was Nantian, one of the ‘Six Masters’ of the early
Qing period, generally associated with paintings Further Qianlong mark and period vessels
of flowers in the meigu or ‘boneless’ style that that combine doucai borders with famille-rose
emphasises washes of colour rather than lines. scenes, but painted in a different style, include
His novel and unique manner of painting allowed a moonflask painted with bats, peaches,
him to bring out the distinct and innate beauty pomegranates and finger citrons and flanked by
of the flowers while making them appear vibrant. a pair of archaistic dragon handles, published
He reintroduced the use of strong, bold colours, in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding
such as reds, purples and bright greens, which [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain], Hong
helped revive this genre in China. Yun’s paintings Kong, 1993, fig. 478, and again in The Tsui
were greatly admired by the Yongzheng (r. Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics IV: Qing
1725-1736) and Qianlong Emperors, and with Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 176, sold in these
the development of famille-rose enamels in rooms, 8th November 1982, lot 204, and again
the 1720s, porcelain designs inspired by Yun’s at Christie’s Hong Kong, 8th October 1990, lot
paintings were created. 525; and an ovoid vase, decorated with four
famille-rose panels depicting flowers of the twelve
The overall design is flanked by a pair of ruyi- months within raised borders of dense doucai
form handles, which adds an added dimension foliate flower scrolls interspersed with ‘precious
of novelty and opulence to the piece. The objects’, sold at Christie’s New York, 29th
appearance of ruyi sceptres as handles on vases November 1990, lot 286. Compare also a doucai
was clearly a response to the Qianlong Emperor’s moonflask in the Tianjin Museum, illustrated in
predilection for the idiosyncratic. Combined Gems of the Doucai, Taipei, 1993, pl. 116, painted
with the lotus flowers and five red bats of the with a figural scene in the centre surrounded by
formal flower scrolls.
IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 95
