EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

A FINE SPINACH JADE 'DAOIST' SCREEN
early 18th century
Crisply and elaborately carved on both sides with pine trees and waterfalls in a spectacular landscape of craggy rocks beneath scrolling clouds, one side with a pavilion and two mountain goats, the reverse with the Sage Laozi astride his water-buffalo and accompanied by two attendants, being greeted by two figures beneath a section of the Great Wall
9½in. (24cm.) high, wood stand

Lot Essay

Laozi, the legendary founder of Daoism, is said to have left the turmoil of his home late in life, riding into the peace of exile on the back of a water buffalo. He was stopped by the border guards and asked there to put his wisdom to paper, and so wrote the eighty-one verses of the Daodejing.
See the screen with a similar subject illustrated by G.Wills in Jade of the East, p.98-9, nos.55-6

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