Page 363 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

panoply of beds, screens, tables, chairs, and apart from a few more curvilinear elements were, in order of preference: zitan, purple
stools, apparently executed in dark woods, in among the verticals and horizontals. The Schol- wood, perhaps of the Pterocarpus (rosewood)
designs of great simplicity and elegance that ar Picking His Ear shows one trait endearingly family;ji chi mu, chicken-wing wood, a kind of
emphasize straight verticals and horizontals at variance with the characteristically elegant striated satinwood; huali or huanghuali,
with rounded corners. The forms and types and simple furniture: an all-too-human disorder another rosewood, ranging from pale tan to
basically characterize Chinese furniture from of books, lute, scrolls, sweetmeats, tripods, and light brown; and hongmu, blackwood, the least
the tenth century until modern times. peaches on the table tops. The table at which the desirable and still common today.
As in the West, indoor furniture differed scholar sits, presumably interrupted while writ- Ornate court furniture and its debased nine-
from outdoor. Many Ming paintings show ing on the sheet of paper before him, is unusual teenth-century descendants were much appreci-
gentlemen-scholars gathered in a garden to in its top surface of black and white da li marble, ated in the West until the rise of the modern
examine paintings and antiques; they sit on a scholarly favorite because its veining suggests movement. The aesthetic of the Bauhaus,
mats, stone benches, or platforms, with a few landscapes and because it is easily cleaned and though deliberately sympathetic to the machine
low stools. As these gatherings move closer to therefore an ideal work surface for painting and world, awakened many to a reappraisal of tradi-
the house —onto a terrace, for example (cat. calligraphy. tional Chinese furniture and, together with the
293) —one may find table, chairs, and a screen, All this suggests how difficult and prob- growing interest in wen ren painting after
moved out from indoors to accommodate the lematical it is to accurately date the numerous World War II, sealed its adoption as a classic
scholar-official. The "outdoor" parties were surviving pieces of this elegant furniture. Cur- achievement in the world history of furniture.
consciously modeled on such historic early rently the quality of the wood, the nicety of the
gatherings as those of the Seven Sages of the complicated nailless and screwless joints, and
Bamboo Grove of the late third century or the clarity and elegance of the design are the
Wang Xizhi's "Lan Ting poetry party" of 353, only real criteria available for approximate BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE:
and archaistic intent or nostalgic feeling led the dating. The reasonable assumption has been
participants willingly to accept an archaistic, that the best furniture corresponds with the Driscoll and Toda 1935, 1964; Willetts 1958; Chiang
even if less than comfortable, setting. most prosperous and aesthetically creative 1954; Ch'en 1966; Philadelphia 1971; DeWoskin, in
Bush and Murck 1983; Lin, in Bush and Murck 1983
Genre interiors, with all furniture in place, reigns, which means, in effect, that it dates from
were less often painted in early or middle Ming. the periods of finest porcelain production — Yonezawa 1956; Vanderstappen 1957; Soper 1958; Siren
Fortunately three works survive: the first 1400-1440,1465-1620, and the Qing dynasty 1963; Taipei 1974; Taipei 1975; Murck 1976, esp. pp.
showing furniture moved from a hall to a to the end of the eighteenth century. 113-129; Cahill 1978; Cleveland 1980, esp. pp. xxxv-
xlv, 157-209; Loehr 1980; Barnhart, in Bush and Murck
nearby garden (Elegant Gathering in the Apri- The woods selected and their treatment form 1983; Little 1985; Hong Kong 1988; Rogers 1988; Bei-
cot Garden, by Xie Huan, in the Palace a large part of the connoisseurship of Chinese jing and Hong Kong 1990..
Museum, Beijing); the second, showing both furniture. Like Chinese connoisseurship of old
garden and pavilion or hall (The Nine Elders of rocks and twisted trees such as juniper (cat. Edwards 1962; Cahill 1978; Bush and Shih 1985; 1173-
Edwards, in Goodrich and Fang 1986, vol. 2, pp.
the Mountain of Fragrance, attributed to Xie 312), the natural grain of the finest south 1177; Rogers 1988.
Huan, Mrs. A. Dean Perry collection, Cleve- Chinese and Southeast Asian hardwoods was
land, Ohio); and the third, revealing a scholar's studied, judged, and appreciated. A high polish Brankston 1938, 1970; Kates 1948, 1962; Sayer 1951;
study (Scholar Picking His Ear, anonymous, on a meticulously finished surface — child's play Jenyns 1953; Willetts 1958; Feddersen 1961; Garner
Freer Gallery, Washington, D. C). All these for a people working jade for six thousand 1962; Medley 1963; Medley 1966, sect. 5; David 1971;
1971;
Ellsworth
Medley, 1976, 1982; Garner 1979;
fifteenth-century scrolls depict furniture differ- years —was necessary to bring out color and Jenyns and Watson 1980; New York 1980; Chicago
ing little from that shown in the tenth century, grain. The fine woods considered most desirable 1985; New York 1989.

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