Page 274 - Chinese Works of Art Chritie's Mar. 22-23 2018

LITERATURE
R. H. Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture: One Hundred and Three Examples from
the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, vol. 2, Hong Kong, New York, 2005,
pp. 12-13, no. 1.
Large screens of the present type are exceedingly rare, due to the large
quantity of timber required for their construction and the fragility of their
carved openwork decoration. The current example artfully employs carved
boxwood inlay for the scenes of antiques in the top register and luohan along
the sides and across the bottom register, its light color visually contrasting
with the darker huanghuali frame. The grouping of ‘antiques’ motif is
commonly found on folding screens as early as the Kangxi period, particularly
on the lacquered ‘Coromandel’ screens, but depictions of Buddhist luohan
are rarer. The most famous example is the pair of eight-panel zitan folding
screens in the Great Buddha Shrine of the Yunguang Lou in Beijing,
commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor in 1758; each panel contains a gilt
and lacquer painting of one of the Sixteen Luohan, based on original paintings
by the Tang-dynasty artist Guanxiu (AD 832-912). However, examples in
huanghuali are also known, including an eight-panel screen with openwork
carving similar to that of the present example, also with the Eighteen Luohan
arranged in the top, sides, and bottom registers, sold at Christie’s New York,
16 October 2001, lot 275. It is unclear whether the huanghuali examples were
inspired by the famous zitan screens in the Yunguang Lou or whether the
precedent for depicting luohan on folding screens was established earlier.

著錄：
安思遠（R. H. Ellsworth），《洪氏所藏木器百圖》，卷二，紐約，2005年，頁
12-13，編號1。

此類大型屏風極其珍罕，所用木料甚多，透雕功夫繁複講究，製作甚為艱
巨。本屏鑲嵌饒富美感之黃楊木縧環板，上端雕花瓶及雜寶紋，兩側和下端
刻十八羅漢，木材色澤淡雅，與外框色調較厚重之黃花梨搭配得宜，互呈妙
趣。以雜寶紋飾為題之圍屏可追溯至康熙時期，並常見於款彩漆屏，惟取材
佛教羅漢則相當罕見。同類圍屏最著名之例為北京雲光樓大佛堂藏一對乾隆
23年（1758年）御製紫檀八扇屏風，其參照唐末畫家貫休（公元832-912年）
名作《十六羅漢圖》，以描金及彩漆繪製各屏。傳世黃花梨圍屏可參考一座
八扇圍屏，其透雕裝飾與本圍屏相約，上下端及兩側均飾以十八羅漢，於紐約
佳士得2001年10月16日拍出，拍品編號275。至於以羅漢為題材之黃花梨圍屏
是否受雲光樓該紫檀圍屏所啟發，抑或可溯源更早，則不得而知。

IMPORTANT CHINESE FURNITURE from the RAYMOND HUNG C O L L E C T I O N 洪建生珍藏中國古代重要家具