Page 340 - Christies IMportant Chinese Art Sept 26 2020 NYC

1821
A BLUE AND WHITE ROULEAU VASE
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
The vase is finely decorated in vibrant blue tones with a
continuous scene of two fisherman on a rocky promontory,
and a third fisherman on a raft, all amidst pine trees and high
mountains. The neck is decorated with two flowering peony
sprays.
17¬ in. (44.7 cm.) high
$50,000-70,000
PROVENANCE:
Private collection, United States.
Christie's New York, 19 September 2013, lot 1319.

Vases such as the present example are celebrated for
their vivid underglaze-blue painting depicting dramatic
mountain landscapes. This style of decoration developed
from the 1630s, when the collapse of the Ming dynasty
freed the potters of Jingdezhen from imperial influence, and
production was instead designed to appeal to the literati
class.

One of the foremost developments of this new ‘literati’
style was the continuous landscape in a restricted
palette, designed in direct imitation of classical scroll
painting. The mountain landscape had long enjoyed
particular significance as a religious symbol, and in the
mid-seventeenth century, the mountain also held cultural
resonance for the scholar-official, representing an ideal
retreat to a peaceful sanctuary away from political turmoil
and any unwelcome call to official duties from a new and
foreign power.

The success of this innovative style is clear from its
continuation into the Kangxi period, when the freshness of
the design was complemented by impeccable technique.
As Stephen Little notes: "The artistic freedom enjoyed
by ceramic decorators at Jingdezhen in these relatively
unsettled economic conditions gave way to unsurpassed
technical skill once imperial control was re-established at
the kilns in 1683, during the early Kangxi reign" (see Julia
B. Curtis, Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century:
Landscapes, Scholars’ Motifs and Narratives, New York,
1995, p. 40).

A blue and white vase, of baluster form, but also decorated
with fishermen on rafts, and with peony sprays on the neck,
is illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics
IV – Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, no. 48. Another
rouleau vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, decorated
with scholars rather than fishermen in remote mountains,
is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of
the Palace Museum - 36 - Blue and White Porcelain with
Underglazed Red (III), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 19, no. 15. A
beaker vase which combines the themes of fishermen and
floral sprays is illustrated idem., p. 40, no. 33.

清康熙 青花山水漁樂圖棒槌瓶