Page 98 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Jades, Met Museum Irving Collection NYC

The incorporation of the subject matter and poem from Zhao Buzhi’s painting into the
present boulder is consistent with imperial workshop practices during the Qianlong
Emperor’s reign. The Emperor encouraged artisans to think across media, and in doing
so, to expand their own capabilities as well as the properties of an artwork by reimagining
the object in a new medium. He was, in fact, personally involved in the conversion of
classical paintings into three dimensional images carved in jade boulders, as evidenced by
masterpieces such as the renowned celadon jade boulder in the Palace Museum, Beijing
titled An Illustration of Da Yu Regulating the Water System, which is modeled after Song
dynasty paintings of the subject and is inscribed with a 322-character poem by the emperor
himself (see Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji: yuqi (xia) / The Complete
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 75).
Elsewhere, the Emperor lauded jade mountains carved with pictorial scenes inspired by
classical paintings for the carved version’s ability to enliven the subject by bringing it from
one plane into many, for making the image more visually enjoyable in the round, and for the
durability that stone o% ers against the ravages of time and Þ re.
The latter factor – the jade’s resistance to Þ re – can be especially appreciated in the present
boulder. The ‘chicken bone’ coloration may have been produced by deliberately heating the
nephrite to create the opaque ivory and black tones. These e% ects could also have come
about by accidental exposure to Þ re. The collection of the Palace Museum, for instance,
contains numerous jades that were burnt in Þ res that erupted at the palace over the years.
Qianlong period boulders that integrate pictorial elements from Song dynasty paintings,
and bear an inscription by the emperor include An Illustration of Da Yu Regulating the
Water System, cited above; a tall celadon jade boulder titled Travelers among Mountains
in Autumn, also in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in ibid.,
cat. no. 77; a celadon and brown jade boulder modeled on Waterfall and Soughing Pine by
the Ming dynasty painter Wen Zhenming (1470-1559), now in the collection of the Asian
Art Museum of San Francisco and published in Michael Knight et al., Later Chinese Jades:
Ming Dynasty to Early Twentieth Century, from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco,
San Francisco, 2007, pl. 356; and a massive pale celadon jade mountain inspired by The
Gathering of Scholars at the Lanting Pavilion, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute
of Art (coll. no. 92.103.13), published in Jades of the T. B. Waler Collection at the Walker Art
Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota: A Catalog on the Collection including a Brief Story on Jade,
Minneapolis, 1945, pl. X, no. 59.

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