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Lot Essay
The present robe was made an empress or a high-ranking court woman. The Huangchao Liqi Tushi, 'Illustrated Precedents for the Ritual Paraphernalia of the Imperial Court', enforced in 1766, authorized three styles of semi-formal attire for empresses and high-ranking court women, of which the present robe is the third style.
The first style is similar to the emperor’s longpao and is decorated with dragons amidst clouds, rather than within roundels, like on the present robe. The second style is decorated with eight exposed dragon roundels and a ninth roundel hidden beneath the front overlap, all above a lishui border at the hem. The third and most rare style, like the present robe, was decorated with roundels only.
A similar example of a semi-formal robe of the third style, dated to the Qianlong period (1736-1795) decorated with the addition of shou characters within the dragon roundels, is in the University of Alberta Museums, Mactaggart Art Collection, and is illustrated by J. Vollmer and J. Simcox in Emblems of Empire: Selections from the MacTaggart Art Collection, Alberta, 2009, pp. 38-39. Vollmer and Simcox note that this robe would have been part of a set which would have included a matching surcoat. The surcoat would have had identical decoration to the robe, but embroidered on a blue, rather than yellow, ground.
A portrait of the Xiaoxian empress wearing a similar yellow semi-formal robe of the third style can be found in Portraits of the Qianlong Emperor and His Twelve Consorts, dated to 1736, by Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) and others, in the collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.31 (fig. 1). The painting shows the empress wearing a robe nearly identical to the present robe. The robe worn by the Xiaoxian empress has similar lavender clouds to the present robe.
The first style is similar to the emperor’s longpao and is decorated with dragons amidst clouds, rather than within roundels, like on the present robe. The second style is decorated with eight exposed dragon roundels and a ninth roundel hidden beneath the front overlap, all above a lishui border at the hem. The third and most rare style, like the present robe, was decorated with roundels only.
A similar example of a semi-formal robe of the third style, dated to the Qianlong period (1736-1795) decorated with the addition of shou characters within the dragon roundels, is in the University of Alberta Museums, Mactaggart Art Collection, and is illustrated by J. Vollmer and J. Simcox in Emblems of Empire: Selections from the MacTaggart Art Collection, Alberta, 2009, pp. 38-39. Vollmer and Simcox note that this robe would have been part of a set which would have included a matching surcoat. The surcoat would have had identical decoration to the robe, but embroidered on a blue, rather than yellow, ground.
A portrait of the Xiaoxian empress wearing a similar yellow semi-formal robe of the third style can be found in Portraits of the Qianlong Emperor and His Twelve Consorts, dated to 1736, by Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) and others, in the collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.31 (fig. 1). The painting shows the empress wearing a robe nearly identical to the present robe. The robe worn by the Xiaoxian empress has similar lavender clouds to the present robe.