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Lot Essay
At first glance, the insects decorated on the present bowl might easily be taken for butterflies, among the most favored motifs in Qing-dynasty porcelain. The enduring appeal of the butterfly in Chinese art was shaped in part by literary and romantic associations, notably Zhuangzi’s dream of the butterfly and the transformation of the lovers Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai into butterflies. On closer examination, however, several of the insects on the bowl display distinctly moth-like features, including comparatively short, substantial bodies and antennae that appear filiform or feathery rather than terminating in the enlarged clubs characteristic of butterflies.
In his study “Butterflies and Moths in Paintings of Plants and Insects: A Dialogue between the Romantic Imagination of the Ancients and Modern Science”, Professor Yu-Feng Hsu observes that traditional painters did not always distinguish closely between butterflies and moths. Artists may have regarded day-flying insects broadly as butterflies and nocturnal species as moths, although the actual behavior of these insects is considerably more complex. Hsu notes, for example, that eight or nine insects in Yu Sheng’s celebrated Myriad Butterflies (Fig. 1) can in fact be identified as moths. Several insects in that painting, with their broad wings, prominent bodies and conspicuous eye-spots, provide comparisons for those depicted on the present bowl.
The difficulty of observing insects at close range also encouraged artists to combine natural characteristics with imaginative invention. Hsu remarks that only a small proportion of butterflies in traditional paintings correspond closely to identifiable species; many incorporate features drawn from several different insects, forming what might be described as “composite butterflies.” Even Giuseppe Castiglione, whose court paintings are celebrated for their naturalistic precision, depicted a moth in the Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Spring album with the enlarged, clubbed antennae of a butterfly rather than the slender antennae proper to the species. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Jingdezhen artisans responsible for the present bowl, working within the conventions of porcelain decoration, similarly blended the characteristics of butterflies and moths. The insects were perhaps intended broadly as butterflies, but their stylized forms incorporate numerous moth-like features, creating fanciful hybrid designs rather than naturalistic precise representations. Their paired and confronted arrangement nevertheless conveys a distinctly auspicious meaning and may further be read as a visual rebus for xi xiangfeng 喜相逢, “a joyful encounter.”
In his study “Butterflies and Moths in Paintings of Plants and Insects: A Dialogue between the Romantic Imagination of the Ancients and Modern Science”, Professor Yu-Feng Hsu observes that traditional painters did not always distinguish closely between butterflies and moths. Artists may have regarded day-flying insects broadly as butterflies and nocturnal species as moths, although the actual behavior of these insects is considerably more complex. Hsu notes, for example, that eight or nine insects in Yu Sheng’s celebrated Myriad Butterflies (Fig. 1) can in fact be identified as moths. Several insects in that painting, with their broad wings, prominent bodies and conspicuous eye-spots, provide comparisons for those depicted on the present bowl.
The difficulty of observing insects at close range also encouraged artists to combine natural characteristics with imaginative invention. Hsu remarks that only a small proportion of butterflies in traditional paintings correspond closely to identifiable species; many incorporate features drawn from several different insects, forming what might be described as “composite butterflies.” Even Giuseppe Castiglione, whose court paintings are celebrated for their naturalistic precision, depicted a moth in the Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Spring album with the enlarged, clubbed antennae of a butterfly rather than the slender antennae proper to the species. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Jingdezhen artisans responsible for the present bowl, working within the conventions of porcelain decoration, similarly blended the characteristics of butterflies and moths. The insects were perhaps intended broadly as butterflies, but their stylized forms incorporate numerous moth-like features, creating fanciful hybrid designs rather than naturalistic precise representations. Their paired and confronted arrangement nevertheless conveys a distinctly auspicious meaning and may further be read as a visual rebus for xi xiangfeng 喜相逢, “a joyful encounter.”