Page 161 - Bonhams Cornette Saint Cyr, Property from the estate of Jean-Pierre Rousset (1936-2021)

Fig.1, Anonymous, Painted Album, Fig.2, Wood carving from The Hall of Respect Fig.3, Illustration of guqin tables from 'The Music of
Qing dynasty, The Metropolitan and Cultivation, Qing dynasty, Suzhou the Wuzhi Studio'
Museum of Art, New York

Fig.4-1, Ming dynasty, a stone qin table and brick, The Palace Fig.4-2, Ming dynasty, a stone qin table and brick, The Palace
Museum, Beijing Museum, Beijing

In Chen Hongshou’s Tingqintu 聽琴圖 (Listening to the Qin) in the There are mainly two forms of lute tables that use the guogong zhuan
collection of the Palace Museum, the player is depicted as sitting on resonance blocks. One is to add supporting legs directly to a brick
a wooden couch bed (luohanchuang 羅漢床) and her instrument is or stone resonance block to form a table. There is one such example
placed on a resonance block with four feet, which are in an archaic which uses a Han dynasty brick in the Wangshiyuan 網師園 (Master
form. The block is decorated with floral patterns and has lobed of the Nets Garden) in Suzhou. The guqin table in the Imperial garden
cartouches on its sides. The depictions of resonance blocks can also of the Forbidden City is, however, formed by a Ming dynasty Court
be seen on an anonymous Qing figure painting in the collection of resonance block being placed on a marble stand. A comparable
the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fig.1), and the wood carving on the example with the Rousset guqin table, this block is 129cm long,
partition screens in the Jingxiutang 敬修堂 (The Hall of Respect and 38.8cm wide and 14.2cm thick, decorated in the classic Ming style
Cultivation) in Suzhou (fig.2). The illustration of guqin tables in the with clouds, dragons, and lotus scrolls (fig.4). The other form of guqin
Wuzhizhai Qinpu 五知齋琴譜 (The Music of the Wuzhi Studio) has also tables is made by inlaying the resonance blocks into the tabletop, as
demonstrated the use of resonance blocks (fig.3). demonstrated by the Rousset guqin table. Such examples agree with
the description in Han Yong’s Ciyou Xiyuanji, as well as the narrative in
the Ming shizong.

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