Page 32 - Tianminlou Hong Kong Sotheby's April 3 2019

EXOTIC DESIGN AT THE YONGLE COURT

Regina Krahl

This remarkable basin, with its distinctive angular shape (the Ardabil Shrine collection) – than in the Chinese court
and abstract central design, appears to be unique, but collections (at least three in Taipei and two in Beijing, as
belongs to the phenomenal range of strikingly shaped listed below). One example of Xuande mark and period and
and decorated vessels of Islamic inspiration developed copies of Yongzheng (1723-1735) and Qianlong (1736-1795)
by the imperial kilns of Jingdezhen in the Yongle period marks and period equally suggest their use at the Chinese
(1403-1424). They represent one of the most important court.
innovations of the kilns’ repertoire in the Ming dynasty While the patterns around the sides and rim are Chinese
(1368-1644). The unusual form with its straight sides, rising in style, the centres are decorated with an abstract,
from a flat base and drawn in towards a wide everted rim, geometrically divided, six- or eight-pointed rosette that
has clearly not been invented on the potter’s wheel, but evokes Middle Eastern ornament. Several different
– like many Yongle vessel shapes – developed by Middle rosettes have been used on these porcelain basins. The
Eastern metalsmiths.
present motif, which does not appear to have been noted
The strong connections between the Yongle Emperor’s otherwise, is made up of interlaced bands that form a
court and Middle Eastern, particularly the Timurid, rulers star shape, with a second, smaller star at its centre. It is
enabled a royal exchange of goods with Islamic countries probably not directly copying a Middle Eastern model;
in general and thus brought Chinese potters into contact rather, the porcelain painters are likely to have studied
with Middle Eastern metalwork. Brass basins of similar the general idea of such designs, which are ubiquitous
form, used together with ewers to wash hands before in Middle Eastern art, appearing on silk, bronze, pottery,
and after meals, were produced especially in Syria and wood and other media (e.g. The Arts of Islam, op.cit.,
Egypt in the 13th and 14th centuries. A famous Mamluk cat. nos 9, 177, 393 and 440), and then endeavoured to
silver-inlaid basin in the Louvre, Paris, made around 1240 come up with a version of their own. The ‘construction’
for the Sultan of Egypt, was included in the exhibition The of such patterns in the Middle East with compass and
Arts of Islam, the Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward ruler was, however, totally alien to the Chinese approach
Gallery, London, 1976, cat. no. 198, together with a Syrian to ornamentation, which is based on free-hand drawing
gilded and enamelled glass basin of the same form, made with a brush. Therefore, the outcome is rather different.
around 1325, cat. no. 137; an Egyptian brass basin in the At least four different complex rosettes were drawn up at
Metropolitan Museum of Art, is illustrated in the Museum’s the imperial kilns for these basins, besides the present one
exhibition catalogue Defining Yongle. Imperial Art in Early two hexafoil versions, one made up of curly, the other of
Fifteenth-Century China, New York, 2005, p. 29, fig. 10, pointed elements, plus a version where the painters took
together with a Chinese blue-and-white counterpart, pl. 2. refuge at more familiar elements and composed a rosette
from eight petal panels filled with emblems.
The blue-and-white porcelain versions made by the
imperial kilns of Jingdezhen must have been highly exotic The present basin differs in most of its designs from
at the Chinese court, but appear to have been much in comparable pieces. The inner and outer sides of these
demand, since they were produced in different sizes and in basins tend to be decorated with a composite flower scroll,
various different designs, mostly in the Yongle period, but which on the present piece has at least on the outside been
continuing into the Xuande reign (1426-1435). We do not replaced by a lotus scroll, the usual floral sprigs under the
know exactly for whom they were intended. Although they rim by different freely floating florets.
would seem to have made perfect imperial gifts to Middle A majority of these Yongle basins show a rim decorated
Eastern potentates, fewer examples are preserved in royal with undulating waves interspersed with swirling eddies.
collections abroad – one in the collection of the Ottoman Borders of carnations, as seen here, seem to have been
Sultans (Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi considered particularly suitable for pieces of Islamic
Saray Museum, Istanbul, ed. John Ayers, London, 1986, shapes. They appear, for example, on the necks of tall
vol. 2, no. 611), none in the collection of the Safavid Shahs

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