Page 145 - Chinese Works of Art Bonhams Sept 2015

8169
PROPERTY OF THE FEDERAL CITY COUNCIL, WASHINGTON D.C.,
THE PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT ITS PROGRAMS
LOTS 8169-8170
8169
AFTER LANG SHINING (GIUSEPPE CASTIGLIONE, 1688-1766)
Victory Banquet at Ziguangge
Horizontal scroll, ink and bright mineral pigments on silk, inscribed Haixi The painting opens on the eastern bank of Zhonghai (the Middle Lake)
chen Lang Shining gong xie followed by two artist’s seals, with an exterior with palace attendants bearing baskets of provisions for the event.
titleslip embroidered Yuzhi Tai Ye Fan Zhi Tu, between couched dragons,
with a frontispiece in large running script reading Ziguang Kai Yuan with
one calligrapher’s seal, mounted with a titled slip on yellow paper reading born by sixteen eunuchs and flanked by the elite imperial guard. Along
Yuzhi Tai Ye Fan Zhi Tu followed by inscriptions in Manchurian, Mongolian,
Arabic and Tibetan scripts, with numerous colophons mounted after the
painting, ink on paper, in Chinese and Manchurian, with a padded silk
scroll jacket with an embroidered title reading Yuzhi Ziguang Kai Yuan tu.
26 1/4 x 261in (66.7 x 662.9cm), the painting only
$50,000 - 70,000
仿郎世寧 紫光凱宴 設色絹本 横幅
Provenance
Donated to the Federal City Council, Washington, D.C. 1988
Simon Kriger (1900-1985), Washington, D.C.
Simon Kriger was raised in the Russian community of Harbin, China,
before immigrating to the United States in 1938. Mr. Kriger became a
prominent art dealer and art patron in Washington, DC, specializing in
Chinese antiques.
The present scroll depicts an imperial procession approaching
Ziguangge (Hall of Purple Brilliance) at the present day Zhongnanhai
compound in Beijing. Opening inscriptions and titleslip denote the
subject of the painting as a “victory banquet”, one of many diplomatic
affairs that were held in the garden adjacent to the Forbidden City.
Such events were often commemorated by Qing court artists, and
were not only meant as a glorification of military success, but to
provide a historical record of the affair.
Across the lake, with the marble bridge and Beihai Pagoda visible
in the deep distance, the Qianlong emperor arrives in a sedan chair,
the way brown and blue-robed princes and high officials kneel as the
procession approaches a temporary felt tent (ger) assembled at the
steps of Ziguangge. Within the tent, the imperial throne is positioned.
On the opposite side of the tent Mongolian nobles kneel in anticipation
of the emperor’s imminent arrival. Bolts of silk, to be given as gifts to
the attendees, await distribution after the banquet.
It is likely that this scroll depicts the celebration of the Qing conquest
of Dzungharia and Altishar, one of the most significant of the Qianlong
Emperor’s “Ten Great Military Campaigns” which greatly expanded
the Qing Empire to include much of what defines modern China’s
current boundaries. This specific battle (1755-1759) expanded the
Qing empire both to the north and west to encompass the current
territory of Xinjiang. The victory banquet was originally commemorated
in a painting by the court artist Ding Guanpeng (1736-1796) and was
later re-drawn by the Jesuit artist Guiseppe Castiglione (1688-1766)
a.k.a. Lang Shining, whose rendition would be made into copperplate
prints, along with other scenes commemorating the “Ten Great
Military Campaigns”. Whereas the present scroll includes many of the
elements in both the Ding Guanpeng and Lang Shining compositions,
the handscroll format allows the artist to include a greater panoramic
view of the landscape that surrounds the Ziguangge compound.
CHINESE PAINTINGS AND WORKS OF ART | 143