Page 20 - Sothebys Imperial Falancai Bowl Kangxi Hong Kong

The Kangxi Emperor’s establishment mark, the latter a blue enamel mark on the unglazed base;
the vase is illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing
of workshops inside the Forbidden Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong,
City, close to his own living quarters, 1989, p. 98, pl. 81; the censer was sold in our London rooms,
where he could observe and comment 6th July 1976, lot 170 and is illustrated on the cover of Chinese
Ceramics. Selected Articles from Orientations 1983-2003,
scientific experiments and technical Hong Kong, 2004.
procedures first-hand, was a The Kangxi falangcai production lasted only for a few years
remarkably courageous undertaking. and, being located inside the Forbidden City, remained a
very small undertaking, with pieces individually designed and
French enamel wares had come to China with the first painted, and enamels specially mixed in small quantities. In
embassies exchanged between Louis XIV of France (r. 1643- spite of this individuality, it did not take long for a recurring
1715) and the Kangxi Emperor in the 1680s, and the Emperor style to appear, with large-scale formal designs of fanciful
soon asked specifically to be sent European artisans able flowers on a yellow, blue or gold-ruby ground. Any other
to make glass and enamels. Already in 1693, when fourteen ground colours or designs are exceedingly rare.
new workshops were established in the Forbidden City, The kind of gold-pink seen on the present bowl stands out
they included one falang workshop (‘falang’ denominating among the falangcai production of the Kangxi reign. Although
the ‘foreign’ enamelling technique), and a glass factory was our bowl is unique, it is particularly interesting that it has a
built in 1696. According to a letter written in 1716 by the ‘brother’ in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, with a close
2
Italian Jesuit painter Matteo Ripa (1682-1746), with the help family likeness, yet very different individual traits. The bowl
of European know-how and the recruitment of European from the palace collection features in numerous publications,
painters, enamelling work was well under way by then, but still was already included in the International Exhibition of Chinese
in its early stages. When in 1719 a specialist enameller arrived Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935-1936, cat. no. 2154,
3
at the court, the French missionary Jean-Baptiste Gravereau
(1690-1762), his skills disappointed the Emperor.
Copper, glass and porcelain were enamelled side by side The Kangxi falangcai production lasted
in the enamelling workshops, and although the porcelain only for a few years and, being located
painters of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province had long mastered
the technique of enamel painting on porcelain, the Beijing inside the Forbidden City, remained
workshops went a different route. The first enamellers there a very small undertaking, with pieces
– probably Westerners who had never worked with porcelain, individually designed and painted,
which had only just begun to be made in Europe – apparently
considered the shiny porcelain glaze an unsuitable surface and enamels specially mixed in small
for the enamels to adhere. Besides experimenting with Yixing quantities.
stonewares, they ordered custom-made porcelains partly or
fully unglazed and left in the biscuit to be made in Jingdezhen
and sent to Beijing for this new imperial adventure. For bowls and more recently in the exhibition Shenbi danqing: Lang
like the present example, very specific orders must have gone Shining lai hua sanbai nian tezhan/Portrayals from a Brush
out, to provide specimens with a glazed interior, rim, base and Divine: A Special Exhibition on the Tricentennial of Giuseppe
inside of the foot, and an unglazed exterior and outside of the Castiglione’s Arrival in China, National Palace Museum, Taipei,
foot. 2015, cat. no. I-19 (fig. 1).
Enamels sent from Europe or custom-made at the imperial The two bowls share the same basic layout and extraordinary
glass factory in Beijing provided a range of enamels very colours: As colloidal gold produces a translucent ruby, puce or
different from the wucai or famille verte palette in use at the purple colour, the opaque, delicate rose-pink of these bowls
same time at Jingdezhen. The main innovations were the required admixture of the opaque white lead arsenate. The
European introduction of gold-ruby enamel, a transparent, two enamels were combined more frequently in variegated
deep purplish-red colour derived from colloidal gold; and the shades to depict rose-pink flowers or other design details,
impasto use of a white enamel derived from lead-arsenate, but are known in this even, monochrome version, suitable
that had been made in the glass workshops for some time, as a ground colour, only from one other piece (listed below).
for use on cloisonné enamel wares, but only now was found Equally exceptional is the bright turquoise enamel that fills the
to be highly effective on porcelains where, mixed with other lobed panels. The likeness between the two bowls, however,
enamels, it added a whole new range of opaque, pastel tones. ends here: while they would seem to have been painted side
by side, in the same workshop, using the same batch of
Among the earliest porcelains successfully decorated in
specially mixed enamels, they were almost certainly painted
Beijing using a gold-based ruby colour may be a vase in the
by two different artists.
Palace Museum, Beijing, and a tripod incense burner in the
Au Bakling collection, both supplied by Jingdezhen as fully The National Palace Museum bowl exhibits in the four
unglazed biscuit vessels, the former with an engraved reign roundels the classic Chinese rendition of flowers of the four