Page 78 - Important Chinese Art Hong Kong April 2, 2019 Sotheby's

THE VIGNIER JADE PENDANT

A ‘TIGER PLAQUE’ WITH RHINOCEROS

FEATURES

REGINA KRAHL

This large, masterfully designed, dazzlingly cut and superbly And a pair in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC,
polished jade carving belongs to an extremely small, recorded to have come from Jincun near Luoyang in Henan
fascinating group of animal plaques of the Warring States province, and considered to be slightly later in date than the
period (475-221 BC). The imaginatively rendered beast Fogg pair, was included in the exhibition Chinese Art of the
impresses at first glance through the powerful, yet elegant Warring States Period. Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C.,
rhythm of its undulating silhouette, and at closer inspection Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1982, cat. no. 96 (fig.
through the exquisite ornamentation and subtle relief on 3); this pair has the rear haunches covered with C-scrolls,
both its sides. It is a prime example of the peak period of the front haunches with linear engraving, one including a
Chinese jade carving in the late Eastern Zhou (770-256 BC), figure of a bird similar in style to the imagery on the present
when jade craftsmen were unsurpassed at making optimal plaque.
use of the stone at their disposal, had developed a complex While all these pendants are very similar, the present plaque
and distinctive style of their own, and finished their works to is unique for its representational carvings of birds and a
perfection. dragon on its haunches, which evoke the wispy, curling
The present pendant has three pairs of companions, all of patterns of the period, which often include rudimentary
which stand out from among the myriads of animal plaques bird and animal features. These distinctive designs are
carved in this period: One pair, in the Fogg Art Museum, extremely sophisticated, executed in a clearly recognizable
Cambridge, MA, is illustrated in Max Loehr, Ancient Chinese style, but never predictable or simply repetitive. The swift
Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg movement they convey would seem to originate with painted
Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1975, motifs, probably on lacquer, but pervades also other media,
pl. 438 (fig. 1); this pair, slightly smaller, has the haunches particularly embroidered textiles; see, for example, painted
covered with a pattern of interlocking T-hooks. bird figures in the centre of a Warring States lacquer dish,
illustrated in Zhongguo qiqi quanji [Complete series on
A pair in the Cleveland Museum of Art, perhaps the latest of Chinese lacquer], Fuzhou, 1993-8, vol. 2, pl. 9 and p. 9, and
the three pairs, illustrated in colour in an advertisement by on the sides of a bianhu, pl. 24; or embroidered bird and
J.J. Lally in Chinese Jade. Selected Articles from Orie ntations animal motifs on the famous silk garments discovered at
1983-2003, Hong Kong, 2005, p. 197, is discussed in J. Keith Mashan, Jiangling in Hubei province, published in Zhongguo
Wilson, ‘A Pair of Chinese Jade Plaques’, The Bulletin of the meishu quanji: Gongyi meishu bian [Complete series on
Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 80, no. 4 (April 1993), pp. 127- Chinese art: Arts and crafts section], 6: Yin ran zhi xiu
30, and illustrated on the cover and in fig. 1 (fig. 2); here, the [Printed, dyed, woven and embroidered textiles], vol. 1,
animals’ haunches are covered with dragon motifs dissolved Beijing, 1985, pls 4-9 and 20-28.
into highly abstract, angular scrollwork.

76 SOTHEBY ’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART