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A SUPERB AND VERY RARE CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL DEEP BOWL
By Claudia Brown
Professor of Art History, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Arizona State University
This exquisite bowl is one of a select group of fourteenth- to sixteenth-century cloisonné enamels prized by the Qing court in the eighteenth century. Master craftsmen working for Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong embellished precious Yuan and early- and mid-Ming cloisonné vessels with newly prepared metal fittings and bases. This practice identified such works as fine and noble works of art and presented them in an enhanced form. The new bases added to these pieces typically bear the Ming-dynasty reign mark of Jingtai (1450-1457). In this instance, the craftsmen, likely from the Palace Workshops, or Zaobanchu, also added two small handles - one at either side of the bowl - each handle in the form of a zoomorphic head suggesting a fantastic feline creature with upturned snout and curling mane.
The most celebrated period for Chinese cloisonné is the Jingtai reign, just as Xuande (1426-1435) is associated with bronzes and blue-and-white porcelain and Chenghua (1465-1487) is prized for its overglaze enameled porcelains, particularly its doucai enameled wares. In fact, a seventeenth-century text praises "the bronze wares of the Xuande era, porcelain wares of the Chenghua era, lacquer wares of the Yongle era, and Jingtai cloisonné" (Bèatrice Quette, p. 155).
Even so, although fine enamels most assuredly were produced during the fifteenth century, scholars remain divided on the question of whether any surviving work with the Jingtai mark actually dates from that reign period. Few works can be reliably attributed to the mid-fifteenth century, and the legendary superiority of the cloisonné of the Jingtai reign remains unconfirmed. Jingtai marks on works in the Palace Museum, Beijing, show great variation in style (Yang Boda, "Jingtai falang") and are presumed to date to the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns, which leaves the appearance of an original Jingtai mark an open, and probably insoluble, enigma.
The main motif on the exterior of this bowl is a makara striding above rolling, white-capped waves. Sometimes referred to in Chinese sources as a kui dragon, the makara is a dragon-like creature with a split and foliated tail and a floral scroll issuing from its mouth; it originated in India and reached China via Nepal and Tibet during the Yuan period. Its appearance on early- and mid-Ming cloisonné is well documented. It also appears on Chenghua-period porcelains with doucai decoration, that is, porcelains with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze polychrome enamels, such as the well-published wine cup in the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection (The Asia Society, Handbook of the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection (New York: The Asia Society), 1981, p.78, 1979.175). The colors on this cloisonné vessel range from purple - often termed "aubergine" in discussions of Ming-dynasty decorative arts - to the more commonly encountered colors of green, yellow, turquoise, dark blue, white, and red. These largely opaque enamels are joined by translucent ones in hues of light green, light yellow, and amethyst. The translucent hues were achieved by adding clear, colorless enamel to the opaque enamels of related color - that is, by adding clear enamel to opaque purple to achieve translucent amethyst, for example. The appearance of aubergine and amethyst marks another parallel to fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century ceramics, as both doucai porcelains and fahua stonewares exhibit these colors.
The interior of this bowl boasts another auspicious creature, a winged dragon, or yinglong, also depicted above white-capped waves. The underside of this yinglong dragon shows the mid-Ming technique of mixing enamel colors within the cloisons, or cells. Red enamel frit is added to a matrix of white enamel, for example, to make a composite "Ming pink." The technique is used on the exterior makara motif as well, notably on the inside of the creature's open mouth. In the waves below the dragon, enamels of different shades of green as well as differing degrees of translucency are applied within each of the cells. The resulting effect suggests the abundance and turbulent character of the waves. The walls of the interior feature a scrolling floral pattern with multi-colored flowers and turquoise leaves set against a ground of white enamel.
The exterior of the vessel has a deep-blue ground, rather than the lighter, turquoise blue more typically seen in Chinese cloisonné enamels. While the blue of the best fifteenth-century pieces is deservedly prized, there is no concrete evidence to link it to the obscure Jingtai reign, or even to the years around 1450. However, the tradition of a "Jingtai blue" no doubt has an historical basis, even if that basis remains unclear to us today. Indeed, Jingtai lan (literally, "blue of the Jingtai era") is common usage for cloisonné in Chinese today. In terminology, a shift from falang, the word previously used to designate cloisonné enamel, to Jingtai lan appears to have taken place in the early Qing period (Helmut Brinker and Albert Lutz, p. 94; Bèatrice Quette, p. 24).
The fine quality of this late-fifteenth to early-sixteenth century bowl is matched by the workmanship of its eighteenth-century embellishments. Those prized additions - a chiseled Jingtai mark with a bold calligraphic flourish to the characters, and the two small handles reminiscent of the mythological animals that enliven ancient bronzes - bespeak the sophistication of the officials and craftsmen of the Qing court. They were careful to preserve the integrity of the admired early enameled vessel while updating it with elegant embellishments in contemporaneous style.
Comparable works with makara motif:
Bowl, middle Ming dynasty, Palace Museum, Beijing (Li Jiufang, cat. 45)
Vessel, first half 16th century, National Palace Museum, Taipei (Chen, cat. 6)
Bowl, early Ming dynasty, George Walter Vincent Smith Collection, George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts, 63.23.83 (Quette, p. 108-109 and cat. 28.)
Bowl, early 16th century, D. Lyon-Goldschmidt (Garner, pl. 31A)
Ewer, early 16th century, ex-Kitson Collection (Garner, pl. 33)
Cup, ca. 1520-1540, Musée Guimet, MA 6375 (ARTstor)
Bowl, second half 16th century, Uldry collection (Brinker, cat. 88)
Vase, second half 16th century, Uldry collection (Brinker, cat. 88)
Comparable works with added handles, bases or other features:
Several examples in the Palace Museum (Yang, cats. 291, 292, 304, for example)
Comparable works with added Jingtai mark:
Large vase, mid-Ming, Palace Museum, Beijing (Yang, cat. 304)
Comparable work with deep blue ground and added Jingtai mark:
Vase, Ming dynasty, early 16th century, Phoenix Art Museum, 1982.172a,b, museum purchase and gift of Robert H. Clague (Brown, cat. 2; Brown in Quette, 138-139, Quette, cat. 41)
Comparable works dated to the Jingtai reign by Yang Boda:
Bowl and gu vessel (Yang, cats. 301 and 302)
Comparable works with mixed colors (more extensive than in the present work):
Panel, second half 16th century or earlier, and censer, first half 16th century, Phoenix Art Museum, 1982.184 and 1982.174a,b, museum purchase and gift of Robert H. Clague (Brown, cats. 4 and 14; Quette, 249, cats. 50 and 232, cat. 17)
The Jardinière Tissot, early 17th century (Jingtai mark), Musée des Arts Decoratifs (Quette, 308, cat. 160)
Comparable works with flowers and turquoise leaves against a white ground:
Plate, Yuan or early Ming, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris (Quette, 233, cat. 19)
References:
The Asia Society, Handbook of the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection (New York: The Asia Society), 1981.
Brinker, Helmut, and Albert Lutz, Chinesisches Cloisonné: Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry. Exh. cat. Zurich: Museum Rietberg Zurich, 1985. Published in English as Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, New York: Asia Society, 1989.
Brown, Claudia, Chinese Cloisonné: The Clague Collection. Exh. cat. Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, 1980.
Chen Hsia-sheng, Ming Qing falangqi zhanlan tulu (Enamel Ware in the Ming and Qing Dynasties). Taipei: National Palace Museum, 1999.
Garner, Sir Harry, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels. London: Faber & Faber, 1962; reprinted 1970.
Li Jiufang, Jinshutai falangqi (Metal-bodied Enamel Ware), Vol. 43, Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji (The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum). Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, 2002.
Quette, Bèatrice, ed. Cloisonné: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties. Exh. cat. New York: Bard Graduate Center, 2011.
Yang Boda, ed. Zhongguo meishu quanji: Gongyi meishu bian 10: Jinyin boli falangqi (Complete Series on Chinese Art: Arts and Crafts 10: Metal, Glass and Enamel Wares). Beijing: Wenwu chunbanshe, 1987.
Yang Boda, "Jingtai falang de zhenxiang," (An Exploration of the Authenticity of Cloisonné Enamels with Jingtai Marks), Gugong bowuyuan yuankan (Palace Museum Journal) 2 (1981): 3-16.
PROPERTY FROM A WEST COAST COLLECTION
A SUPERB AND VERY RARE CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL DEEP BOWL
MING DYNASTY, 15TH-EARLY 16TH CENTURY
Details
A SUPERB AND VERY RARE CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL DEEP BOWL
MING DYNASTY, 15TH-EARLY 16TH CENTURY
The deep bowl has a bulbous body that tapers and then flares towards the rim. Each side is decorated with a winged, long-tailed makara with open jaws from which issue a string of pearls and a long-stemmed lotus flower, all amidst clouds and precious emblems on a dark blue ground above a band of rolling, white-capped waves from which rise turquoise rocks beneath each of the gilded animal-mask handles. Below is a petal-lappet border, repeated on the spreading foot, and above is a diaper border. The interior is decorated in the center with a medallion of a winged dragon within a petal-lappet border, and on the walls with scrolling stems bearing lotus blossoms and small turquoise leaves reserved on a white ground below a border of demi-florets at the rim. A Jingtai six-character mark is cast in a line in a panel on the gilded base.
5¾ in. (14.7 cm.) high, 6¼ in. (16 cm.) diam.
MING DYNASTY, 15TH-EARLY 16TH CENTURY
The deep bowl has a bulbous body that tapers and then flares towards the rim. Each side is decorated with a winged, long-tailed makara with open jaws from which issue a string of pearls and a long-stemmed lotus flower, all amidst clouds and precious emblems on a dark blue ground above a band of rolling, white-capped waves from which rise turquoise rocks beneath each of the gilded animal-mask handles. Below is a petal-lappet border, repeated on the spreading foot, and above is a diaper border. The interior is decorated in the center with a medallion of a winged dragon within a petal-lappet border, and on the walls with scrolling stems bearing lotus blossoms and small turquoise leaves reserved on a white ground below a border of demi-florets at the rim. A Jingtai six-character mark is cast in a line in a panel on the gilded base.
5¾ in. (14.7 cm.) high, 6¼ in. (16 cm.) diam.
Provenance
Acquired in New York in the early twentieth century, and thence by descent to the current owner.
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