Page 22 - Art of the Ming and Qing Dynasty by Johnathan Hay

function of informal decorative display, such objects became the locus of feats of ingenuity,

elaborate workmanship and wit which have little to do with the studio in its original usage.
Before continuing further with the visual expressions of luxury, however, we can give
them a broader context by briefly addressing the tradition of small-scale vernacular sculpture,
which had survived from the pre-Ming period much like the realist traditions of Water and
Land paintings and Lohan sculptures, as another pervasive (but underestimated) part of the

visual culture of Ming China. One of its main forms was tomb sculpture. Ming dynasty
tombs, unlike those of the Yuan, rarely had wall paintings. Instead, they normally included a
set of freestanding sculptures representing the household of the deceased: the servants, the

carriages, entire ensembles of furniture, even clothes (508). The sets sometimes ran to
hundreds of pieces, and could be made of clay, wood or stone. It is difficult to know if they
were accurate in recording a particular household's means, but they were certainly meant to
be realistic. As had been true since the Tang dynasty, realism in the tomb context had a
magic function, amking the representation more efficacious in ensuring that the deceased

would be properly accompanied in the next world. In the Ming this meant a lively
representation, often slightly caricatural. Meanwhile, another pre-Ming tradition of relief
sculptures of theatrical scenes incorporated into the architectural structure of the tomb

continued under the Ming in architectural decoration, notably carved wood panels and brick
lintels, where they had a similarly auspicious function.
The rich tradition of vernacular sculpture in tombs and architecture was found
throughout China. By contrast, most of the production centers for "scholar's taste" objects
were located in the south-east, above all in the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In Yixing,

potters specializing in teapots proliferated, and expanded their range of products to include
brushwashers, water pots and copies of archaistic bronze vessels to be used as incense
burners and flower vases. A teapot by Shi Dabin takes the form of a textile-wrapped seal of

office (509), an example of which is included in a design of six seals of state from the
Wisteria Studio Album of Stationery Decorated with Ancient and Modern Designs, published
in Nanjing ca. 1626 (508). The aesthetic point of the teapot, so to speak, lies in the mutual
incompatibility of the two ideas it embodies: the informal teapot and the ultra-formal seal.
The tension between function and representation is here pushed to the point where only an

ironic sensibility can encompass the two. The letter paper design is no less sophisticated.
Anticipating the metonymic procedures of Japanese surimono of the late eighteenth century,
the six seals of ofice allude to a specific historical figure, a wandering statesman of the

Warring States period, Su Qin. Along with the more famous Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of
Painting and Calligraphy (ca.1627), also a Nanjing product, this album of stationery designs
demonstrates the strides that been made in color printing (made possible by the use of