Page 79 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Jades, Met Museum Irving Collection NYC

Fig. 1 The jade ‘Du Mountain basin’, Yuan dynasty, 1265 © The Collection of The Palace Museum, Beijing
⚾ᶨġġ㾮Ⱉ⣏䌱㴟炻⃫炻1265⸜ġ©ġ⊿Ṕ㓭⭖⌂䈑昊

The present washer, hewn from a massive jade boulder and carved to the exterior with powerful
dragons writhing through swirling clouds and turbulent seas, can trace its form to an immense
jade basin made 1265 and given to Khubilai Khan. The basin, sometimes referred to as the ‘Du
Mountain basin’, is the earliest known jade carving of this monumental scale (Þ g. 1). It is carved
from a single block of dark blackish-green jade, and measures approximately half a meter deep
and up to 182 cm wide. Similar to the present example, the sides are carved in high relief with
dragons and other mythical creatures moving across a turbulent sea. Khubilai Khan placed the
esteemed vessel in the Guanghan Hall of his pleasure garden, where it remained until the end of
the Yuan dynasty when it was transferred to a Daoist temple and used for vegetables until being
rediscovered in the 10th year of the Qianlong Emperor’s reign (1745) and moved back to the
imperial gardens. The basin is now installed in the Round Fortress of Beihai Park, Beijing.
The Qianlong Emperor was so impressed by the basin that he had it cleaned and polished – a
process that took four years given the scale of the work – and had three poems of admiration
inscribed on its surface, dating to 1746, 1749, and 1773, respectively. Through cleaning
and studying the basin, the Qianlong Emperor and his team of artisans developed a deep
understanding of the vessel and the techniques involved in its creation. By 1753, the imperial
workshop crafted a small jade washer in its image to present to the emperor. This delighted
the Qianlong Emperor, who then commanded the artisans to rework the dragons on the Yuan
dynasty basin according to those on the new, small washer. The exercise then inspired the
Emperor to commission 40 further jade washers of this type: 20 of large scale, 10 of medium
size, and 10 small versions.
Production of the Qianlong Emperor’s series of jade ‘dragon cloud’ washers began in earnest in
1759, when the emperor conquered Xinjiang and gained access to a steady and ample supply of
jade from Khotan. The Þ rst large washer of the group, carved with nine dragons amidst clouds,
was completed in the 34th year of the Qianlong reign (1769). The Emperor deemed the washer
superior to its Yuan dynasty precedent, composed a laudatory poem to be carved on it, and
installed it in the East Wing of the Qianqing Palace. Other washers from this series were placed
in various halls throughout the palace. The imagery of the dragon and cloud – two entities that
animate one another, and rely on their mutual interaction to realize their full power and potential
– was a metaphor for good governance. Thus, when the Emperor would invite his o" cials
to view the ‘dragon cloud’ washers, each viewer would be reminded that the empire needs
virtuous, capable o" cials and a discerning emperor to appreciate their abilities.

CHINESE ART FROM THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: THE FLORENCE AND HERBERT IRVING GIFT 77