Page 103 - Ming Porcelain Auction March 14, 2017 Sotheby's, NYC

August Hermann T he principal decoration on the body of the ewer is highly enigmatic and no
other example of Chinese porcelain bearing this iconography appears to
Francke be recorded.

Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen The cruciform mounted on a stepped base and painted with a square pattern
is seemingly unique as both a motif and as a decorative strategy on ceramics.
Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch The pedestaled cross entered the area around Western Tibet in the 8th and 9th
centuries via Nestorian Christians, as testi ed by textual records and images of
Historische Klasse 1925 371 the crosses carved into stone. In the early 20th century, the Tibetologist August
Hermann Francke recorded images of these engraved Nestorian crosses in
2 ‘Felseninschriften in Ladakh,’ Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, 1925, p. 371, pl. 2 ( g. 1). Some
⋸ Asian of the Western Tibetan Nestorian crosses feature the cross-and-pedestal with
Charlotte Chang plant-like auxiliary lines or birds. In other words, they contain all of the elements
seen on the ewer. The combination of cruciform and winged forms (both as
Art Newspaper 2016 5 11 angels and as birds) also appears on Nestorian stone stele of the Yuan dynasty,
torma meeto and on Yuan period small bronze pendants, which may have served as seals,
clan markers, or personal adornments. A bronze pendant in the collection of the
David K Barker Designs of Bhutan Hong Kong University Art Museum, for instance, takes the shape of a cross with
1985 9 7 diagonal lines connecting the roundels at each of its termini, its central roundel
has a Buddhist swastika, and its upper roundel has a tree-of-life image. Images of
Newark this and related pendants are featured in Charlotte Chang, ‘Nestorian Crosses of
the Yuan Dynasty,’ Asian Art Newspaper, 11 May 2016. The ‘torma meeto’ (‘small
Museum Valrae Reynolds god(dess)’) pattern in Bhutanese weaving is similarly structured as a stepped
pedestal supporting a cross topped with a tree-of-life, as illustrated in David K.
From the Sacred Realm Treasures of Barker, Designs of Bhutan, Bangkok, 1985, p. 9, pl. 7 ( g. 2).

Tibetan Art from the Newark Museum An alternative inspiration for the cruciform on the ewer may have been the Tibet
Buddhist crossed-vajra (also known as the double-vajra), which symbolizes
1999 80 absolute stability in the universe. Many iterations of the crossed-vajra circulated
in China and Tibet in the Ming dynasty. For example, it is represented with
2002 10 30 278 scrolling extensions issuing from its arms on a 16th century silver ewer from
Eastern Tibet in the collection of the Newark Museum that is published in Valrae
Reynolds, From the Sacred Realm: Treasures of Tibetan Art from the Newark
Museum, New York, 1999, pl. 80. The crossed-vajra also appears on blue and
white wares, such as the Chenghua period dish sold in our Hong Kong rooms,
30th October 2002, lot 278. Collectively, this evidence demonstrates that the
form of a stepped pedestal surmounted by a cross issuing supplementary lines
had precedents in the Sino-Himalayan artistic vocabulary leading up to the Ming
dynasty when the ewer was created.