Page 102 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

1386

A RARE GU FAMILY EMBROIDERED SILK
PANEL
17TH-18TH CENTURY

The golden-beige silk is fnely embroidered
with a scholar seated beside an attendant,
whose face is turned towards another
attendant holding the reins of a grazing
horse. The whole is set in a landscape of
grass and abstract clouds, in green, brown
and pale cream threads picked out with
blue, green and black paint. The upper
section is inscribed with a hall mark, possibly
reading Hua yu tang, a poetic inscription,
which expresses the wish to study diligently,
achieve a high score at the exam, and to
serve at the high court, followed by two seals
which read hu tou (tiger head) and Qing bi
zhai (bright green studio).

38Ω in. (97.8 cm.) x 17 in. (43.1 cm.) framed
and glazed

$12,000-18,000

The Gu Family’s embroideries were greatly
admired by the leading artists of the day, as
they refected the subtleties of classic painting.
Gu Mingshi passed the imperial examination in
1559 to become a civil oficial. He constructed
a mansion at Songjiang (today Shanghai), and
whilst excavating a pond for the new residence,
a fragment of old stone inscribed with the
characters luxiang chi, ‘pond of fragrant dew’, was
found, which became the name of the mansion.
The female members of the Gu Family were well-
known for their artistic and skilled embroidery.
The most famous was Han Ximeng, the wife of
Gu Mingshi’s second grandson. Han Ximeng
spent several years embroidering reproductions
of eight well-known paintings of the Song and
Yuan periods. Her works were given the accolade
of laudatory inscriptions by Dong Qichang, one of
the most famous artist-calligraphers of the Ming
dynasty. Han Ximeng signed her work Wuling
xiushi, ‘Master Embroiderer of Wuling’, and even
wrote a history of embroidery. Han Ximeng’s
daughter followed her mother and became an
accomplished interpreter of classic painting in the
medium of silk. Later, when the family fortunes
declined, Gu Lanyu opened the commercial studio
of the Gu Family embroidery at the Luxian Yuan.

The Gu Family revived earlier Song period
embroidery techniques, but the school also
refned new techniques of subtle shading and the
use of exceptionally fne thread. The seals hu tou
(tiger head) and Qing bi zhai (bright green studio)
were often used in Gu Family embroideries.
明末/清十八世紀 顧繡「出行圖」