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Lot Essay
This snuff bottle is one of the masterpieces of Palace enamelling, with an elegant form ideally matched with a powerfully disposed subject coupled with complete technical control.
By the reign of the Emperor Qianlong, between 1736 and the 1750s, the Palace enamelling workshops had reached their peak in mastering the manufacture and painting of overglaze enamels. A combination of intense Imperial interest, the fruits of the Kangxi and Yongzheng Emperors' contributions to enamelling in the various media, and proliferation of both Court artists and Jesuit missionaries involved in designing and painting the wares, resulted in a short zenith for the art. The present example is from this early Qianlong period. It is of a unique subject, unrecorded anywhere else in the Imperial enamel repertoire.
A delightful addition is found in the use of a single, small bulge in the enamel, which occurs once in a while when the original white ground, which is fired first as a base upon which to paint, has a tiny air-bubble trapped beneath the surface. It has been used to form the chin of the female immortal. It is not merely an amusing touch which lends a truly three-dimensional character, it is also an indication of the artistic quality of this group of wares as a whole. The artist has arranged the entire subject around this one minute flaw to transform a tiny negative aspect of the overall work of art into something entirely positive. It is another indication that with the finest of Palace production, every single bottle is devised afresh.
The two figures probably represent Lan Caihe and Li Tieguai, two of the Eight Daoist Immortals, on a trip to seek medicinal herbs or going to and from the isle of Penglai. Similar scenes of immortals in a log boat appear in two panels of the Imperial twelve-panel soapstone-inlaid zitan screen dated to the Kangxi period, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 28 April 2003, lot 592.
At first glance this appears to be a Chinese subject executed entirely in European style, but closer examination reveals a fascinating aspect of this painting. Although the style is predominantly illusionistic and European, the artist, knowing that he was dealing with a Chinese subject, used strong, calligraphic lines wherever appropriate. For example, the robes are softly outlined around the shoulders and arms, while the folds are accentuated with quite firm lines. On the faces, line is equally blended with illusionistic shading, and on the trousers of both figures linear execution predominates, as it does in the masterly painting of the waves. In the superbly painted, elegantly flowing and curling waves, we see no hint of any European influence - they may have very well been taken straight out of a traditional Chinese painting. The juxtaposition of their elegantly formalised turbulence and the complete composure of the Immortals gives the scene a remarkable quality of precipitate motion and paradoxically at the same time, a feeling of complete harmony.
By the reign of the Emperor Qianlong, between 1736 and the 1750s, the Palace enamelling workshops had reached their peak in mastering the manufacture and painting of overglaze enamels. A combination of intense Imperial interest, the fruits of the Kangxi and Yongzheng Emperors' contributions to enamelling in the various media, and proliferation of both Court artists and Jesuit missionaries involved in designing and painting the wares, resulted in a short zenith for the art. The present example is from this early Qianlong period. It is of a unique subject, unrecorded anywhere else in the Imperial enamel repertoire.
A delightful addition is found in the use of a single, small bulge in the enamel, which occurs once in a while when the original white ground, which is fired first as a base upon which to paint, has a tiny air-bubble trapped beneath the surface. It has been used to form the chin of the female immortal. It is not merely an amusing touch which lends a truly three-dimensional character, it is also an indication of the artistic quality of this group of wares as a whole. The artist has arranged the entire subject around this one minute flaw to transform a tiny negative aspect of the overall work of art into something entirely positive. It is another indication that with the finest of Palace production, every single bottle is devised afresh.
The two figures probably represent Lan Caihe and Li Tieguai, two of the Eight Daoist Immortals, on a trip to seek medicinal herbs or going to and from the isle of Penglai. Similar scenes of immortals in a log boat appear in two panels of the Imperial twelve-panel soapstone-inlaid zitan screen dated to the Kangxi period, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 28 April 2003, lot 592.
At first glance this appears to be a Chinese subject executed entirely in European style, but closer examination reveals a fascinating aspect of this painting. Although the style is predominantly illusionistic and European, the artist, knowing that he was dealing with a Chinese subject, used strong, calligraphic lines wherever appropriate. For example, the robes are softly outlined around the shoulders and arms, while the folds are accentuated with quite firm lines. On the faces, line is equally blended with illusionistic shading, and on the trousers of both figures linear execution predominates, as it does in the masterly painting of the waves. In the superbly painted, elegantly flowing and curling waves, we see no hint of any European influence - they may have very well been taken straight out of a traditional Chinese painting. The juxtaposition of their elegantly formalised turbulence and the complete composure of the Immortals gives the scene a remarkable quality of precipitate motion and paradoxically at the same time, a feeling of complete harmony.