Page 134 - Sotheby's Arcadian beauty Song Pottery Oct. 3, 2018

A JADE BUFFALO TREASURED BY
THE QIANLONG EMPEROR

This monumental and unique jade carving of a water buffalo is Chinese Painting, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 1981,
an extraordinary legacy of the Song dynasty. It was originally cat. no. 3. Anonymous paintings include an album leaf of
created as a display object of presence and power, yet endued water buffaloes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
with the spirit of nature, enabling a wealthy patron to transport accession no. 51.150.1, and another sold at Christie’s Hong
his mind away from the cares of the city to the tranquillity Kong, 27th November 2017, lot 935.
of nature. Treasured through the ages, it was later in the
Bo Liu argues in ‘The Multivalent Imagery of the Ox in Song
collection of the Qianlong Emperor, who had it inscribed in
Painting’, Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, University of
1746 with imperial seals and a poem, the essence of which
Berkeley, vol. 44, 2014, that paintings of buffaloes thrived in
strongly points to its use in an important annual agricultural
the Song dynasty for a numbers of reasons: firstly, because
ritual.
such paintings gave scholar officials temporary relief from
Water buffaloes were revered from early on in Chinese history their daily working lives in the city, providing them with a
and depicted in a variety of media including bronze and temporary sense of withdrawal while viewing the painting;
jade. Some of the earliest surviving jade examples include a secondly, because such paintings were popular with the
small figure depicting a reclining and forward-facing animal, emperor because they implied his worthiness to rule, and
attributed to the late Shang dynasty (13th-11th centuries BC), thirdly, because herding was increasingly used as a metaphor
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession. no. for attaining enlightenment by Chan artists. Large scale
1976.297.2, a jade water buffalo carved in flat relief in the Mrs sculptures of water buffaloes such as the current lot are much
Edward Sonnenschein collection, Chicago, illustrated by A. rarer than images of buffaloes in paintings, but are likely to
Salmony, Carved Jade of Ancient China, 1938, pl. XXIII (8) have served the same purpose – to transport the owner to a
and an example in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, illustrated bucolic paradise.
by Jessica Rawson, ‘Animal Motifs in Early Western Zhou
In contrast to antiquity, when animal sculptures were created
Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections’, Chinese
for burial, the post-archaic period saw the emergence of a new
Bronzes: Selected articles from Orientations, 1983-2000,
tradition of such animal sculptures being created for pleasure
Hong Kong, 2001, p. 20, fig. 12. Jade carvings of animals
and utility rather than for ritual or burial. This is epitomised by
excavated from Shang tombs during the Song dynasty no
a rare bronze figure of a water buffalo, closely related to the ox
doubt had an influence on contemporaneous works.
included in this sale as lot 3104, in the Metropolitan Museum
Water buffaloes were revered in Song poetry and painting. of Art, New York, accession no. 1985.214.92.
A poem by the statesman and literati Su Shi (1037-1101),
Excavated animal figures from the Song dynasty are rare,
epitomises this:
though a small stone paperweight in the form of a stylised
Long ago I lived in the country, buffalo was recovered from a Southern Song tomb at Zhejiang
And knew only sheep and buffalo. Zhuji county, illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from
Down smooth riverbeds [riding] on the buffalo’s back, the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum, London, 1995, p.
Steady as a hundredweight barge, 356, fig. 10. Like the current buffalo, its naturalistic recumbent
A boat that needs no steering, while banks slipped by, pose encapsulates the more secular treatment of the animal
I stretched out and read a book: she didn’t care. sculpture. Accompanied by another stone paperweight and
other items used for writing, it was clearly a valued possession
Buffaloes were a popular subject matter in Song dynasty
of a wealthy individual in life, rather than an object created for
paintings. There is a number of famous examples in museum
the tomb.
collections, such as Yan Ciping, Buffalo and Boy in Autumnal
Landscape, included in the exhibition Eight Dynasties of