Page 46 - 2019 October Important Chinese Art Sotheby's Hong Kong

MAKING THE EMPEROR SEE HIDDEN DRAGONS

REGINA KRAHL

Almost no other blue-and-white design of the Xuande The Xuande Emperor continued the patronage of the
reign (1426-1435) represented such a perfect vehicle for Tibetan Buddhist clergy, their monasteries and temples,
Jingdezhen’s potters to show off their prowess like this which the Yongle Emperor (r. 1403-1424) had initiated on
stem bowl and its rare companions. No previous or later a grand scale. Stem bowls appear to have been used in
porcelains have documented in any comparable way the Buddhist rituals and placed on Buddhist altars. Many stem
artisans’ newly acquired ability to play with cobalt tones at bowls of this form, mainly in monochrome white, are known
will, to mix and fire them so precisely that they evoke exactly from the Yongle period and many different designs were
the desired effects: an impressive deep royal blue to convey commissioned by the Xuande Emperor. Those decorated
majestic and powerful animals contrasting with the subtlest with imperial five-clawed dragons and inscribed with the
shades of pale blue to suggest sweet, unthreatening waters. imperial reign mark left no doubt about the pious imperial
The efforts to create distinctive tones of cobalt blue were donor who was thus immortalised. A number of stem bowls
clearly following the tradition of ink painting, where depth, almost certainly bestowed by these two Emperors are still
emphasis and even drama were always invoked through preserved in Tibet today, for example, in the Sakya (Sa-skya)
simple shades of black and grey. Monastery in Xigaze (Shigatse) and in the Potala Palace in
Lhasa, see the exhibition catalogue Xueyu cangzhen. Xizang
And as if this was not admirable enough, the imperial kilns wenwu jinghua/Treasures from Snow Mountains. Gems of
conjured up another trick, the still mysterious technique
of creating a design that is hidden, anhua, and not obvious Tibetan Cultural Relics, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2001,
to the casual viewer, but takes some effort to be seen – a cat. nos 93-97, which include a white Yongle example with
technique never successfully replicated in later periods. incised dragons and a Xuande stem bowl with blue five-
clawed dragons and polychrome lotus.
Since in the Xuande reign, the interest at court in the
artefacts from Jingdezhen’s imperial kilns had finally been The present design is known from only three other pieces,
fully aroused, the potters now strove not only to justify all of Xuande mark and period, and four other examples
the attention they received, but to amplify it. To go to the of a close variant are recorded, most of them in museum
extreme lengths of adding highly complex decoration that collections. A very similar piece in the Capital Museum,
is all but invisible can have no other reason than trying to Beijing, is illustrated in Shoudu Bowuguan cang ci xuan
engage the Emperor directly with the porcelains delivered to [Selection of porcelains from the Capital Museum], Beijing,
the court, to get him to handle them, to look at them closely, 1991, pl. 101; another in the National Museum of China,
to make him actively aware of the virtuosity of Jingdezhen’s Beijing, is published in Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan guancang
artisans, in short, to impress him. wenwu yanjiu congshu / Studies on the Collections of the

44 SOTHEBY ’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART