18TH-19TH CENTURY

The scene on this jardinière may have been inspired by Giuseppe Castiglione’s handscroll painting Picture of Eight Fine Steeds (Ba jun tu) in the Palace Museum Beijing, illustrated in Paintings by Court Artists of the Qing Court, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol.14, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 142-3, no. 23, although the scene on the jardinière only includes five horses, painted in an unusually animated fashion. Castiglione’s paintings of horses were copied by many artists in the 18th century, and it is equally possible that one of the later versions served as the source for the decoration on this jardinière. An 18th-century hanging scroll by Wang Youxue was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 May 2007 and depicts two of the horses in Castiglione’s handscroll. (fig. 1) Two horses in a related pose, depicted with a slightly different use of perspective, can be found on the present jardinière.