Page 21 - Sothebys Imperial Falancai Bowl Kangxi Hong Kong

seasons – peony, lotus, chrysanthemum, and prunus with
camellia – painted in a traditional style, clearly by a Chinese
hand, and the prunus-shaped panels evoke Chinese shaped
windows or doors opening onto garden vistas. Unusual, and
clearly revealing a Western presence nearby, are only the
sheaves of tobacco leaves separating the four panels.

The kind of gold-pink seen on the
present bowl stands out among the
falangcai production of the Kangxi
reign. Although our bowl is unique,
it is particularly interesting that it
has a ‘brother’ in the National Palace
Museum, Taipei, with a close family
likeness, yet very different individual
traits.
fig. 2
Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), Endless Longevity and Everlasting
The H.M. Knight bowl, on the other hand, deviates in many Spring, Qing dynasty, hanging scroll, ink and colours on silk, detail
© Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
respects from the classic Chinese painting manner and is
pervaded by a Western flair. The flowers – daffodils with
roses; hibiscus perhaps with buttercups; Turk’s cap lilies
Qing gongzhong falangcai ci tezhan/Special Exhibition of
with poppies; and another rose and rose buds with gardenias
Ch’ing Dynasty Enamelled Porcelains of the Imperial Ateliers,
– cannot easily be put in a seasonal order, nor do the
National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1992, cat. nos 10 and 11.
combinations lend themselves for interpretation as auspicious
puns. The depiction of flowers against bright blue sky is not The rendering of the decoratively paired flowers in the
known in Chinese painting; the pendent green foliage with tips four windows may have been influenced by the styles of
of blue buds, and the pink-and-orange rosettes do not derive contemporary florilegia, exactingly painted flower books
from a Chinese decorative repertoire. made popular by the German natural scientist and painter
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), which were widely
Most extraordinary of all design elements on our bowl,
distributed in Europe for their educational benefit as well
however, are the small blue asters in the pendentives between
as their aesthetic appeal, were much copied, and greatly
the windows, depicted dramatically foreshortened, like the
influenced the decorative arts of the time.
‘prunus’ windows themselves, as if the painter wanted to
prompt us to pick up the bowl and turn it, so as to better The present bowl and its companion in the National Palace
appreciate the full design. This depiction of perspective, Museum belong to the most remarkable and rarest pieces
brought to China by European scientists and painters, from that period. With their Western stylistic components,
was never really adopted by their Chinese counterparts. their original manner of decoration, and their pink reign
Similar blue asters, seen from various different angles, marks, they most likely belong to the early porcelains painted
feature frequently in paintings by the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe in the Kangxi workshops, conceived before a certain degree
Castiglione (1688-1766), who was employed as a court of standardization set in, and before all marks were inscribed
painter; see, for example, the blue asters in the foreground in blue; yet they are executed to perfection, painted and fired
of his painting Endless Longevity and Everlasting Spring, to satisfy the highest standards, and thus represent a distinct
illustrated in Shenbi danqing, op.cit., cat. no. I-06 (fig. 2); or step ahead of the more obviously experimental pieces of that
in Golden Pheasants in Spring, ibid., cat. no. V-02. Together period.

The H.M. Knight bowl, on the other hand, deviates in many respects from the
classic Chinese painting manner and is pervaded by a Western flair.

with Ripa, Castiglione had at one point even been ordered Among those, a very unusual shallow bowl in the National
by the Kangxi Emperor to paint in the enamelling workshop, Palace Museum should be mentioned, painted in a somewhat
and was also involved in preparing designs for Western naïve, large-scale, ‘boneless’ Western style with red asters,
enamellers. Similar blue asters appear also on some of the similar to the blue ones on the present bowl, as well as roses,
4
early Yixing pieces enamelled in the imperial workshops, see morning glories and pinks, all on a rare white enamel ground,