Page 485 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

noted Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) references to noted the resemblance of Arabian cloisonne (Da-
"two well-known [Daoist] Immortals traveling shi yao) to the inlay or champleve enamels of
separately to the fairy islands in a lotus boat and a "Folang." Recorded examples of cloisonne bearing
raft in the form of a hollow tree stump." Tai Yi reign-marks of the Zhiyuan (1335-1341) and
Zhen Ren (Great Monad Daoist), as the latter was Zhizheng (1341-1367) eras raise the possibility
called, was credited with many attributes and that some of the techniques of enameling were
powers, but most pertinent here is his manifesta- introduced by a tribute mission from Europe,
tion as spirit of the pole star, basic to navigation. which may have sparked on its return the visual
Robert Mowry has called attention to a Yuan and conceptual ideas that resulted in the star-
period wine-storage jar with painted decoration of tlingly innovative landscape setting for the "Good
a scholarly figure floating in a hollow log; hang- Government" frescoes commissioned of Ambro-
ing from a branch is a gourd (a Daoist emblem), gio Lorenzetti in 1339 for the Palazzo Pubblico in
and in the sky above appears a dipper-shaped con- Siena, an important enameling center in the four-
stellation orientated with reference to the figure teenth century.
below. Other Yuan ceramics, especially Cizhou While the enamels were disdained by such
painted pillows, feature scenes with offering conservative critics as Cao Zhao, the horse was
tables below and constellations above, a meaning- received with great wonder and enthusiasm.
ful juxtaposition, since official offerings were On the arrival of the auspicious steed such court
made to Tai Yi throughout the Yuan and into the artists as Zhou Lang, Chen Sheng, and Zhang
342 Ming period. Yanfu were commanded to paint the "heavenly
The boat in turn is no ordinary river convey- horse," and many officials, including Yu Ji and
BOAT-SHAPED WINE CUP ance but rather a sky boat which carried Daoist Jiexi Si, wrote poems and inscriptions to com-
transcendants from either the ocean in the east or memorate the occasion. Most germane to our
\ century
Chinese Ming period the source of the Yellow River in the west into the account among the painters was Zhang Yanfu,
gray-green jade with dark markings Sky River, or Milky Way. Even before the Tang who was not only a friend of Du Ben, author
length 10.8 (4^/4) dynasty (618-907) that identification was sup- of the poem on the silver boat-cup, but also
ported by identifying the figure as Zhang Qian an important priest of the Daoist Tai Yi Temple
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Avery (160-114 B.C.), army officer and explorer extraor-
Brundage Collection in Beijing.
dinaire, who in the second century B.C. introduced These connections and interrelationships
A bearded old gentleman wearing scholar's robe into China from Ferghana the grapevine, alfalfa, encourage speculation that the iconography of the
and cap is conveyed within a hollowed log through and the prized "blood-sweating" horses. By Ming boat-shaped wine cups was invented by that group
water indicated by lotus blossoms and waves times the historical Zhang Qian had been thor- of Daoists and scholars active in the capital during
below; a gourd, hanging here from the rear of the oughly barnacled with legendary achievements the late Yuan dynasty, and that it was they who
boat, and a book are other characterizing attrib- like sailing the Sky River and was, in the Ming commissioned the silver vessels from Zhu Huayu.
utes of the figure. For drinking, the cup was imagination, both explorer and wonder-worker. In These in turn served as models for later cups in
easily grasped by the protrusion at the rear. Its one version of the tale Zhang's stellar destination other materials, such as the present example. We
smooth yet richly tactile surface would have was identified for him by the Daoist wonder- may be sure, however, that the obscure and seem-
B
yielded additional pleasure as the cup was hoisted, worker Dongfang Shuo (154-93 -C.), who was ingly arcane iconography of this drinking cup did
just as the warm tones of the jade would have held to have been an incarnation of the planet nothing to diminish the pleasure of its users in its
enhanced the natural color of the warm wine. Venus, just as Li Bo would be many centuries visual and tactile delights. Quite the contrary.
Boat-shaped wine cups made from a variety of later. H.R.
materials seem to have been particularly popular Why these partially overlapping identities and
from about the fourteenth through the seven- meanings should have been merged during the
teenth century. Those made by the famous silver- Yuan dynasty and been given visual form in the
smith Zhu Huayu (also known as Zhu Bishan, silver wine cups of Zhu Huayu is another perplex-
c. 13OO-C. 1362 or after) bear dates ranging from ing question. Certain it is, however, that scholars 343
1345 to 1362, as well as poetic inscriptions which at court had Zhang Qian's explorations very much
confirm their function: "Li Bo was crazy after in mind. In 1342 a magnificent horse arrived in BOAT- SHAPED WINE CUP
one hundred cups, and old Liu Ling was always Beijing from a Western country identified in by Bao Tiancheng
besotted; only when you know the pleasure of dynastic records as Fulang, a name derived by the active late i6th-i7th century
wine will you leave behind a good name/' The Chinese from the Persian farang and used to des-
poem by Du Ben (1276-1350) translated above, ignate in general terms the European nations late i6th century
Chinese
which was cast onto a cup made by Zhu in 1345, descendant from the Franks. Court records explic- carved rhinoceros horn
must have been inspired by the desire to claim itly compare the Fulang steed with those brought height 9.7 (3 /s), length 25.5 (10)
7
kinship — at least during one evening's pleasure — to China a millennium and a half before by signed: Bao Tiancheng
with such "immortals of the wine cup" as Li Bo Zhang Qian. reference: Chapman 1982, 101-105
(701-762) and Liu Ling (3rd century). Yu Ji and European records show that the horse was
Jiexi Si (1274-1344), scholar-officials who were shipped from Genoa on behalf of Pope Benedict Museum of Art and History, Shanghai
Du Ben's contemporaries, likewise wrote inscrip- xn, then in exile in Avignon in France. A close
tions for and about Zhu's fabulous cups. variant of the name Fulang occurs in the Ge Gu Extant bronzes and jades in rhinoceros form show
The precise identity of the figure and the full Yao Lun (Essential Criteria for Judging Antiques), that the imposing creature was already known in
meaning of the boat are still uncertain because written by Cao Zhao in 1387, in the course of the China in the eleventh century B.C. Its seemingly
the evidence itself is ambiguous. Wai-kam Ho has earliest Chinese account of cloisonne; Cao Zhao impenetrable hide was valued early on for shields

484 CIRCA 1492