Page 17 - Sotheby's YAMANAK Vase Oct. 3, 2018

fig. 4
Print, designed by Alexis Peyrotte, etched by Gabriel Huquier, 1740
© Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum / Art Resource, NY

Qianlong mark and period, also from the Qing court collection influence extended also to the imperial porcelain workshops in
(ibid., vol. 3, pl. 136). Beijing. The decorative leaf motifs, often identified as acanthus
leaves, seen on the present vase may have been directly
The formal designs painted around the shoulder, on a
yellow diaper ground, however, have a very different inspired by designs by Alexis Peyrotte, 1699-1769, a French
origin. The Qianlong Emperor assembled a large number decorator and painter, who decorated royal apartments at
of Jesuit craftsmen at his court, as his grandfather, the Versailles, at the palace of Fontainebleau and the Chateau de
Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662-1722), had done, who exerted a Marly, and was renowned for his Chinoiserie style. An etching
conspicuous influence on the arts and crafts of his reign. by Peyrotte of an acanthus-leaf design element created
The curled feathery fronds incorporated into the decoration in 1740 and thus nearly contemporary with this vase, is
of this vase are strongly indebted to the Western Rococo particularly close to the motifs here used on the shoulder (fig.
style that flourished during the reign of King Louis XV 4, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum).
(r. 1715-1774) of France. Rocaille elements, named after While rocaille elements were typically, however, used in
decoratively carved rockwork in gardens and responsible asymmetric compositions, they are here assembled with
for the term Rococo, became highly popular in France in the pearl strings and purely Chinese motifs such as the double
1730s and later throughout Europe for interior design as well fish, ‘good luck’ talismans, ruyi lappets and musical stones, to
as silver and porcelain decoration. The term appears first a formal symmetric ‘necklace’ gracing the neck of the vase,
on a screen design that typically combines shell motifs and the pearls depicted with reflecting highlights to render them
foliate arabesques by the French artist Francois Boucher, a three-dimensional, the pendent lappets shaded in tones of
leading style maker of the first half of the 18th century, who’s grisaille.

THE YAMANAKA RETICULATED VASE 15