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The present vase is notable for its lively enamelling style with the In later Imperial Chinese society, women were confined to the
numerous ladies exquisitely detailed, their delicate features offset by home and were not encouraged to be educated. During the late
richly patterned robes and extravagant gilt jewellery, revealing their Ming dynasty however, against a background of social change and
high cultural status and wealth. The scenes are also extraordinarily economic prosperity, some women managed to challenge these
dynamic, with the tall figures filling the surface, and very actively conventions. The famous late Ming philosopher Li Zhi (1527-1602)
involved in their chosen pursuits, whether dipping the brush in the ink even declared in his ironically titled Book to be Burned that women
for the next stroke of a half-finished painting, or reaching into a pot were equally intelligent to men and he even took on female students,
for another weiqi counter. The confident use of the entire body of the much to general surprise. Celebrity courtesans accomplished in the
vase for the large figural groupings, contrasting with the simple border genteel arts of music and literature entered male society, heralding
designs, may suggest an early date in the Kangxi reign: see R.Kerr, a new model of feminine identity almost equal to the male literati.
Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911, London, The present vase reflects this unusual emergence of accomplished
1986, p.98. females, and celebrates them as being knowledgeable and
intellectually engaged, whilst still being refined, delicate and attractively
A very similar vase in form and decoration to the present vase, and feminine. See S.McCausland and Lizhong Ling, Telling Images of
possibly its pair, from The Salting Bequest and now in the collection of China: Narrative and Figure Paintings 15th-20th Century from the
the Victoria and Albert Museum, reference c.1244-1910, illustrated by Shanghai Museum, London, 2010, pp.65-7.
R.Kerr, Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911,
London, 1986, p.99, no.77. Another similar vase, also with ladies engaged in the Four
Accomplishments, from The Salting Bequest but with a figure of Li
The vase is also particularly to be treasured for its subject matter, Tieguai on the neck, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert
not only for its lively depiction of the Four Elegant Accomplishments Museum, reference c.11246-1910. See also a related Kangxi vase
of painting, calligraphy, playing the qin and playing weiqi, but in depicting ladies engaged in the Four Elegant Accomplishments, see
particular for its depiction of refined ladies enjoying these pursuits. The Tsui Museum of Art: Chinese Ceramics IV, Qing Dynasty, Hong
The Four Elegant Accomplishments were codified as highly esteemed Kong, 1995, no.93. Another example from the Grandidier Collection
cultural activities suitable for the Chinese scholar gentleman, and it is and now in the Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet is illustrated
accordingly unusual to see women engaging thus in such activities. by M-C.Rey, Les Très Riches Heures de la Cour de Chine, Paris, 2006,
no.35. Another smaller vase, but with a more restrained treatment of
the ladies’ pursuits, from the bequest of Benjamin Altman, is exhibited
at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, reference 14.40.88.
Image courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum,
London.
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