Page 16 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Three Masterpieces
P. 16
AN IMPERIAL JAR
WITH A BUDDHIST
CONNECTION
REGINA KRAHL
Chinese dragons come in a multitude of forms and outside Beijing. This platform, which was completed in 1345
appearances, of which the kui (or xiangcao, ‘sweet grass’) and originally supported three white dagobas, is carved with
dragon depicted on the present jar is perhaps the most Tibetan Buddhist imagery and inscriptions of sutra texts in six
endearing manifestation. Although in a Buddhist context this scripts and languages. A pair of makara dragons decorates the
motif was very popular in China in the early Ming dynasty gate’s arch (fig. 1).
(1368-1644), it remained very rare on Chinese porcelain and
only four other jars of this type appear to be preserved, only In the reign of the Yongle Emperor (r. 1403-1424), who actively
one of them remaining in a private collection, but in a less good patronised Tibetan Buddhism, the motif was frequently
state of preservation. used in thangkas featuring Buddhist deities. The kui dragons
appear here in a similar place, in the gateway-like mandorla
The two dragons on this jar are charging ahead on two lion’s surrounding the main figure, their curling tails often hard to
paws, their long trailing tails swirling up and down as they disentangle from the opulent ornamentation of the overhead
advance, a scrolling sprig of lotus floating ahead, issuing from arch; see, for example, the multi-coloured dragons on the
their curled-up snouts. Dragons of this kind are derived from ‘gate of light’ surrounding a figure of Yamantaka-Vajrabhairava
the Indian makara, a water guardian spirit used particularly in the famous embroidered silk thangka of this period in
as an architectural element to protect gateways. It arrived in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included in the
China with the propagation of Buddhism just after the Han Museum’s exhibition Defining Yongle. Imperial Art in Early
dynasty (206 BC – AD 220), but for centuries made only rare Fifteenth-Century China, New York, 2005, pl. 35, with further
appearances, generally as a detail on Buddhist sculptures or details illustrated in the catalogue, p. 60 and p. 87; and in the
temples reliefs. exhibition Ming. Fifty Years that Changed China, The British
Museum, London, 2014, catalogue fig. 210 (fig. 2).
From the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) onwards, as Tibetan
Buddhist iconography became more influential in China, the In the Ming dynasty, we see such Buddhist motifs also often
motif became more prominent and can be found, for example, on cloisonné enamel wares, although examples that can be
on the famous reliefs around the gateway of the Cloud dated with confidence to the early fifteenth century are rare.
Terrace on the Juyongguan mountain pass of the Great Wall, A bowl from the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum,
fig. 1
Gateway of the Cloud Terrace on the Juyongguan mountain pass of the Great Wall
© Heritage Images
14 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比
