Page 31 - Art De' Asie Christie's Paris December 16, 2022

PROPERTY FROM A FRENCH PRIVATE COLLECTION
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RARE ET IMPORTANTE PEINTURE RITUELLE IMPÉRIALE
CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, CIRCA 1700
Monté en rouleau, encre et couleur sur soie.
Représentant le gardien du soleil vêtu d'une robe rouge richement décorée et The magnificent painting is distinguished by its high quality of brushwork, me-
tenant une tablette hu parmi des nuages multicolores. Il est accompagné d'un ticulous details and the vibrant mineral pigments. An inscription in the lower
puissant dragon et de deux divinités féminines. Le coin supérieur gauche porte left, “Respectfully commissioned by the imperial prince Zhuang,” shows that
une inscription à six caractères en or dans un cartouche rectangulaire: Ri Gong the painting was the product of the imperial workshop. The first Prince Zhuang
Taiyang Zuntian ("le gardien du soleil du palais du soleil"). Le coin inférieur (1650-1723) of the Qing dynasty is identified as one of the great-grandsons
gauche portent une inscription et la signature du Prince Zhuang, Boggodo
(1650-1723) ainsi que son cachet. of Nurhachi, the founder of the Qing dynasty. Prince Zhuang’s Manchu name
Dimensions : 169,8 x 91,2 cm. (66w x 35w in.) was Boggodo, and his father Shuo Sai was a brother of Emperor Shunzi
(1644-1661).
€60,000-80,000 US$60,000-80,000
£53,000-70,000 The present paintings belong to a group of paintings from the Shuilu, ‘Water
and Land’, pantheon and were placed on temple walls for specific Shuilu
PROVENANCE: rituals. These rituals were prayers offered to the deities of the Shuilu; and
French private collection, acquired in the French art market in the
1970s-1980s. were recited in expectation of the deliverance of mortal creatures of land
and water, including those of the living and the souls of the deceased, enter
A RARE AND IMPORTANT IMPERIAL RITUAL PAINTING the wheel of reincarnation, and thereby achieving Nirvana. The Shuilu rituals
CHINA, QING DYNASTY, CIRCA 1700 found popularity during the Yuan period, and prevailed into the Ming and
early Qing dynasties. From the style and composition of these paintings, early
⌅國私Ӫ珍藏
઼碩莊親王 日宮太陽尊天 設色㎩本 ・軸 Qing depictions followed closely to those of earlier Ming period. A set of 139
題識˖઼碩莊親王發心誠造DŽ hanging scrolls dated 1460 from the Baoning Temple, Youyu County, Shanxi
鈐ঠ˖莊親王寶 province, and now in the Shanxi Provincial Museum, is discussed by R. L.
Thorpe, Son of Heaven: Imperial Arts of China, Seattle, 1988, pp. 119-23, nos.
ֶⓀ 53-7. Cf. two related Ming works sold in these Rooms, 6 November 1997, lot
⌅國私Ӫ珍藏ˈ於 年代至 年代購自⌅國藝術品市場
1077, depicting five standing Guanyin; and 3 November 1998, lot 1034, of five
figures of Buddha.
Compare to the other paintings from the same series, the first of ‘The Vene-
rable Celestial Naga King of the Ocean’, and the other ‘The Venerable Celestial
Goddess Bodhidruma’, included in the exhibition, Chinese Imperial Patronage,
Asian Art Gallery, London, pp. 30-31, nos. 5 and 6. Two other paintings, one
depicting Da fan wang zu tian, Venerable Celestial King Brahma, and the other,
Jianmen yuan miaodao zhenjun, Overseer of the Gate, Perfected Being of the
Subtle Way, offered at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2007, lot 865. Another
painting from the same series depicting the Tiger-taming arhat is in the col-
lection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (museum number: FE.2-2010) and
another representing Guan Yu in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum
of New York (accession number: 2001.442 (fig.1.)). Also see two paintings from
the same series representing Virudhaka and Gandharva, sold at Christie’s
Hong Kong, 29 May 2007, lot 1438. Another one representing the Warrior
God of Heaven, also by the Prince Zhuang, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 26
May 2021, lot 858.

(fig.1.) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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