Lot Essay
The present vase is remarkable for its excellent quality of painting. Two comparable vases with battle scenes on the main register and landscape around the neck are illustrated by Mino and Robinson, Beauty and Tranquility: The Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Art, Catalogue, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1983, p. 338, fig. 14.
The scene is probably inspired by woodblock prints taken from the popular Chinese classical novel Sanguozhi Yanyi, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which recalls the collapse of the Eastern Han dynasty when China splintered into separate states battling for political supremacy. It recounts the efforts of a member of the Han imperial house, Liu Bei, who heroically attempted to reunite a divided country. Liu Bei formed an alliance with Guan Yu (later deified as Guandi, the Daoist god of war) and together they fought against Cao Cao, the ruler of the State of Wei who seized control of north China. For further reading on the subject, refer to the article by D. T. Johnson, Narrative Themes on Kangxi Porcelains in the Taft, Orientations, August, 1993, pp. 31-36.
(US$45,000-60,000)
The scene is probably inspired by woodblock prints taken from the popular Chinese classical novel Sanguozhi Yanyi, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which recalls the collapse of the Eastern Han dynasty when China splintered into separate states battling for political supremacy. It recounts the efforts of a member of the Han imperial house, Liu Bei, who heroically attempted to reunite a divided country. Liu Bei formed an alliance with Guan Yu (later deified as Guandi, the Daoist god of war) and together they fought against Cao Cao, the ruler of the State of Wei who seized control of north China. For further reading on the subject, refer to the article by D. T. Johnson, Narrative Themes on Kangxi Porcelains in the Taft, Orientations, August, 1993, pp. 31-36.
(US$45,000-60,000)