Page 128 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

The ascension of the Qianlong emperor (乾隆 r. 1735-1795) set the stage for men. They also carried an additional contrasting band of decoration on
for major changes to the regulations concerning court attire. In 1748 the the sleeves, which matched the neck facings and cufs. The Huangchao liqi
emperor commissioned a review of all previous Qing court dress regulations. tushi authorized three styles of semi-formal attire for the empress and other
The review culminated in the circulation of the Illustrated Precedents of the high-ranking women. The frst style was nearly identical to the emperor’s
[Qing] Imperial Court (Huangchao liqi tushi 皇朝禮器圖式) in 1766. This law, jifu, with a single integrated design of dragons within the cosmos across
the most inclusive and wide-ranging of its kind in the history of imperial the entire surface of the coat. The second type confned the dragons to nine
China, classifed all clothing and accessories used by the court from the roundels. Eight were exposed and the ninth roundel was placed under the
emperor to the lowest functionary. Although robes made for the emperor front overlap; the hem was decorated with a lishui border. The third type
could be, and were occasionally, made of fabric dyed qiu xiangse. This color, is decorated with nine roundels only. The preoccupation with the number
once forbidden to the noble consorts (guifei 貴妃), was now assigned to next nine and emperor, or the emperor’s women, appears to be a mid-eighteenth
two lower ranks of consorts (fei 妃 and pin 嬪). century development as the qiu xiangse robe under consideration has only
the eight roundels that are exposed when the garment was worn and none
The new practice of diferentiating gender by styles of jifu was already under the front overlap.
evident at the outset of the Qianlong reign (1736-1795). Everyone (all of the
women) but the emperor in the 1736 Giuseppe Castiglione’s (Lang Shining) The Qianlong edicts provide no reasons for diminishing the oficial status
handscroll In My Heart There is the Power to Reign Peaceably [Inauguration of dragon roundel patterned jifu or the color qiu xiangse. The particular
Portraits of the Qianlong emperor and his consorts] is depicted wearing shade of bright greenish yellow autumn incense color we encounter in early
a dragon roundel jifu. Unlike the early Qing dynasty evidence of men eighteenth century Chinese textiles disappears from later textiles, where qiu
and women wearing dragon roundel patterned jifu, the emperor’s jifu is xiangse most often refers to shades of brown or only slightly green-tinged
decorated with an overall integrated pattern of dragons amid clouds above yellows—a fact that raises questions about the possibility of forgotten
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a lishui standing water and waves border at the hem. (Fig. 3) This jifu type or changing dyeing practices. Decisions to emphasize Manchu heritage,
was already present during the early Qing period as demonstrated by a as stated in the preface to the Huangchao liqi tushi, may have infuenced
supplemental weft patterned yellow silk gauze robe in the Palace Museum decisions to downgrade the dragon roundel patterns favored by the previous
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collection that sometimes is associated with Shunzhi emperor. There are Ming dynasty, but which also continued to decorate the unoficial wardrobes
several examples each of jifu with integrated dragon decorated associated of the Han Chinese populations of the empire.
with the Kangxi and Yongzheng emperors in the Palace Museum collection
and in other museum and private collections. Although surviving court robes dating from the early Qing period are few
in number and leave us with many unanswered questions, it would appear
After 1766, save for the surcoats displaying insignia, which were assigned that the re-evaluation of the status of certain types of attire and colors was
to the highest-ranking male members of the imperial clan, dragon roundels already underway during the third and fourth decades of the eighteenth
ceased to ornament the robes of the emperor, his sons and princes of the century. This stunning early eighteenth century robe will continue to be
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frst to fourth ranks. The wardrobes of imperial women detailed in the an important document to consider when studying the evolution of Qing
Huangchao liqi tushi included the garments of the emperor’s daughters dynasty oficial dress code.
and fve grades of consorts. Individual ranks were largely distinguished by
the colors of the garment fabrics. The skirts of women’s dragon robes have John E. Vollmer
vents at the side seams, rather than the center front and back as prescribed

1 Danish National Museum, dragon robe, embroidered silk satin, L: 56 1/4 in. (143 cm.), accession 8 See ibid., section 37.
number: Bd.207, unpublished. The robe was misidentifed as a woman’s robe in a citation for a 9 See ibid., section 49.
description of an empress’s robe in the Mactaggart Art Collection, see: John E. Vollmer and Jacqueline
Simcox, Emblems of Empire: Selections from the Mactaggart Art Collection, Edmonton: University of 10 See: unpublished PhD dissertation by Jing Han, The Historical and Chemical Investigation of Dyes
Alberta Press, 2009, p.39 in High Status Chinese Costume and Textiles of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911), University of
Glasgow, School of Cultural and Creative Arts, College of Arts, 2016, pp. 52 and 298.
2 See: Palace Museum, Beijing, Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji 50: Qingdai Gongting
Fushi, [The Complete Collection of Treasurers of the Palace 51: Costumes and Accessories of Emperor 11 See Da Qing Hui Dian, section 162.
and Empresses of the Qing Dynasty], Hong Kong: The Commercial Press Ltd., no.14, pp. 28-29. 12 Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining, Italian, 1688-1766), In My Heart There is the Power to Reign
3 See: Ibid., no. 5, pp. 12-13. Peaceably [Inauguration Portraits of the Qianlong emperor and his consorts], 1736, handscroll, ink and
color on silk, 20 7/8 x 127 in., (52.9 x 688.3 cm), Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund
4 See: Ibid., nos. 32 and 33, pp. 58-59 and Hong Kong Museum of History, Guo cai caho zhang: Qing dai 1969.31.
gong ting fu shi, [The Splendours of Royal Costume: Qing Court Attire], Xianggang : Kang le ji wen hua
shi wu shu, 2013, p.120-121. 13 See: Palace Museum, Beijing, Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji 50: Qingdai Gongting
Fushi, [The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace 51: Costumes and Accessories of Emperor and
5 See: Palace Museum, Beijing, Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji 50: Qingdai Gongting Empresses of the Qing Dynasty], Hong Kong: The Commercial Press Ltd., no.31, p. 57.
Fushi, [The Complete Collection of Treasurers of the Palace 51: Costumes and Accessories of Emperor
and Empresses of the Qing Dynasty], Hong Kong: The Commercial Press Ltd., no. 29, pp. 53-54. 14 See: “Rank and Status at the Qing Court” chart in John E. Vollmer and Jacqueline Simcox, Emblems
of Empire: Selections from the Mactaggart Art Collection, Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2009,
6 Pair of Portraits, reportedly depicting Cuyeng (1580-1615) and his wife, probably dating 18th – 19th pp.62-63.
century, hanging scrolls, ink and color on silk, 72 1/2 x 38 7/8 in. (184.3 x 98.8 cm.), S1991.114 and
S1991.115, Arthur M. Sackler Galley, Purchase – Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program and
partial gift of Richard G. Pritzlaf.
7 See Da Qing Hui Dian, section 24.
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