Page 16 - Sotheby's Falancai Poppy Bowl Oct. 3, 2018

In later narratives, we can read that Lady Yu responded to It is surprising therefore, that this ‘photogenic’ flower was so
the ‘Gaixia song’ by singing a poem herself and by performing rarely depicted on porcelain. On falangcai porcelains from
a sword dance for her lover, giving herself the sword at the the Beijing enamelling workshops it was used already, but in
end. This tale of loyalty and moral integrity has made her a a very different, more lush and imposing form, in the Kangxi
popular heroine and she is revered as one of ancient China’s period, with the flowers set against a purple ground; see
famous beauties. As poppies are believed to have grown on Shen bi danqing. Lang Shining lai Hua sanbai nian tezhan/
the spot, where she killed herself, the flower is named after Portrayals from a Brush Divine. A Special Exhibition on the
her, Yu meiren, ‘Beauty Yu’. Her tomb east of Suzhou in Lingbi Tricentennial of Giuseppe Castiglione’s Arrival in China,
county, Anhui province, in the area formerly named Gaixia, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2015, cat. no. I-17.
remains a famous tourist attraction.
In the Yongzheng reign, it appears to have been used only
The poppy flower is easy to recognize by its frilly, less than once in the Beijing workshops, but rendered in a manner
paper-thin petals, its buds enveloped by a green hull, which it much closer to the present example. A pair of small falangcai
sheds when they open, and a hairy stem. Flower painting had dishes of Yongzheng mark and period, also preserved in the
been practised in China since at least the Song dynasty (960- National Palace Museum, is similarly painted with poppies
1279), but became a specialist genre due to the virtuosity of growing from behind rockwork, both unique in composition
Yun Shouping (1633-1690), probably China’s most famous and sharing between them the same two poetic lines
flower painter, who introduced a new diction: his scrolls and inscribed on our bowl, one line appearing on each; see ibid.,
album leaves in the ‘boneless’ style (without ink outlines) cat. no. II-05; and Qing gongzhong falangcai ci tezhan/
revived interest in the field as a whole. His depictions also Special Exhibition of Ch’ing Dynasty Enamelled Porcelains of
of poppies inspired many painters particularly in the Kangxi the Imperial Ateliers, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1992,
(1662-1722) and Yongzheng (1723-1735) periods, such as cat. no. 98 (fig. 1).
Wang Wu (1632-1690), Yun Bing (1670-1710), Ma Yuanyu Although the present bowl was clearly inspired by these
(c. 1669-1722), Zou Yigui (1686-1772) and others, all of two dishes, it is very differently conceived and displays its
whom painted poppies, often in the form of album leaves own individual painting style. On the Yongzheng prototypes,
representing one of the months of the year.
the scenes are rendered with the flowers seemingly more

fig. 1
Pair of falangcai ‘poppy’ dishes, blue-enamel marks and period of Yongzheng
© The Collection of National Palace Museum, Taipei