Page 45 - 2021 March 18 to 19th, Important Chinese Works of Art, Christie's New York City

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE NEW YORK COLLECTION
741
AN EIGHT-PANEL COROMANDEL LACQUER SCREEN
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
The delicate screen is crisply carved through the dark brown-ground on
one side to depict the story of Empress Xu serves food to the mother of the
Emperor, and further detailed with musicians performing in the foreground
and court ladies engaged in various leisure pursuits in the terraced
courtyard. The reverse is carved and decorated with a pair of cranes and
other types of birds in a landscape surrounded by rocks and trees.
72 in. (182.8 cm.) high, 15æ in. (40 cm.) wide, each panel

$30,000-50,000
PROVENANCE:
Acquired in New York before 1980.
The present screen appears to depict the Han dynasty legend of “Empress
Xu Serves Food." This story of Empress Xu displaying her filial devotion
by personally serving food to the mother of the Emperor was popular in
the Qing dynasty; another depiction can be seen on a hanging scroll by an
anonymous court artist in the early Qianlong period, which would be hung (reverse)
in the Palace of Concentrated Purity during the New Year Festival. See
Wen-chien Cheng, “Idealized Portraits of Women for the Qing Imperial
Court," Orientations, May 2014, pp. 86-87, fig.1a. This court painting is
accompanied by a poem by the Qianlong Emperor, commending the Han
dynasty Empress and exhorting his empress and concubines to follow her

清康熙 款彩許后奉案圖八扇屏風
來源:
於1980年以前購自紐約。