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Lot Essay
The poem reads:
'Embrace the principles of yin and yang.
Amend deficiencies in order to make [better] judgment.'
Past sages have thus advised.
Living in an age of distress,
What a lofty figure Mr. Li is!
He is gentle, upright, kind and understanding.
He is purer than solid gold;
As lustrous as beautiful jade.
Having been through years of hard work,
He [now leads] a free and easy life.
One becomes a centenarian at the age of one hundred.
Mr. Li has just reached half of that.
Those who are always respectful of others and loyal to duties,
It is to be expected that they will live to a ripe age.
Folks who are in their sixties and seventies,
Please take a look at this eulogy.
Ma Shaoxuan (1867-1939) was one of the most technically accomplished artists of the Beijing school of painting, which was first started by Zhou Leyuan and included other leading artists such as Ding Erzhong, Ye Zhongsan and Ziyizi. Ma's famous monochromatic portrait bottles of leading Qing officials and personalities were highly sought after among the influential minority of his day and continue to be among the most coveted of all inside-painted bottles. Executed only in black ink, with the use of vermillion solely for seals, each portrait is a technically impeccable, photographic likeness of the sitter. Ma's extraordinary renown led to his being commissioned in 1911 to paint two portraits of the young Xuantong Emperor.
From the eulogy, composed by the scholar poet Gu Yuan of Xiangfu (Kaifeng in Henan province), and the title we learn this is a portrait of a Li Yanting, an unrecorded figure of apparent importance. Whoever he was, the bottle on which he appears is one of the transcendent masterpieces in a group where masterpieces are standard. Ma's monochrome portraits were of a consistently exquisite quality and sensitivity, and are amongst the finest and most sought after of all inside-painted snuff bottles. This is one of the most imposing, with perfect formal integrity and generous form.
'Embrace the principles of yin and yang.
Amend deficiencies in order to make [better] judgment.'
Past sages have thus advised.
Living in an age of distress,
What a lofty figure Mr. Li is!
He is gentle, upright, kind and understanding.
He is purer than solid gold;
As lustrous as beautiful jade.
Having been through years of hard work,
He [now leads] a free and easy life.
One becomes a centenarian at the age of one hundred.
Mr. Li has just reached half of that.
Those who are always respectful of others and loyal to duties,
It is to be expected that they will live to a ripe age.
Folks who are in their sixties and seventies,
Please take a look at this eulogy.
Ma Shaoxuan (1867-1939) was one of the most technically accomplished artists of the Beijing school of painting, which was first started by Zhou Leyuan and included other leading artists such as Ding Erzhong, Ye Zhongsan and Ziyizi. Ma's famous monochromatic portrait bottles of leading Qing officials and personalities were highly sought after among the influential minority of his day and continue to be among the most coveted of all inside-painted bottles. Executed only in black ink, with the use of vermillion solely for seals, each portrait is a technically impeccable, photographic likeness of the sitter. Ma's extraordinary renown led to his being commissioned in 1911 to paint two portraits of the young Xuantong Emperor.
From the eulogy, composed by the scholar poet Gu Yuan of Xiangfu (Kaifeng in Henan province), and the title we learn this is a portrait of a Li Yanting, an unrecorded figure of apparent importance. Whoever he was, the bottle on which he appears is one of the transcendent masterpieces in a group where masterpieces are standard. Ma's monochrome portraits were of a consistently exquisite quality and sensitivity, and are amongst the finest and most sought after of all inside-painted snuff bottles. This is one of the most imposing, with perfect formal integrity and generous form.