Page 70 - Ming Porcelain Auction March 14, 2017 Sotheby's, NYC

68 SOTHEBY’S NEW YORK 14 MARCH 2017 MING: THE INTERVENTION OF IMPERIAL TASTE

FOR THE IMPERIAL BRUSH

REGINA KRAHL

I n a society like imperial China, where writing and painting played an
outstandingly important role, a brush washer was an object of the utmost
importance and consideration. Emperors were compelled to write all the
time in the ful lment of their duties, but in addition, many of them enjoyed
composing poetry, to exercise and demonstrate their calligraphic skills,
inscribing colophons on paintings or calligraphies they liked, or painting
themselves. The Xuande Emperor (r. 1426-1435) has gone down in history
as one such ruler, who devoted himself to cultural pursuits and employed his
brush not only for the a airs of state, but also for artistic endeavors.

While earlier imperial brush washers would have been of greenish-glazed Ru
or gray-green crackled guan ware, a blue-and-white porcelain example would
have been new at court in the early Ming (1368-1644) dynasty. As one of the

rst Chinese rulers, the Xuande Emperor appears to have been personally
interested in the activities of the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province.
The relatively new style of blue-and-white porcelain produced there, which was
in strong demand abroad, throughout Asia and as far west as East Africa, had
at rst appeared alien to a Chinese elite trained in the restrained Song (960-
1279) aesthetics. Yet the outstanding quality achieved at Jingdezhen in the
early 15th century, the elegance of form, and the superbly painted designs which

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