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Lot Essay
The decoration on this generously proportioned brushpot is rare in combining both a 'bird and flower' scene and a landscape, the two major themes in the Chinese painting tradition.
The landscape scene depicted represents a classic theme where two scholars and their attendants, each carrying a qin, traverse a majestic landscape towards a rustic pavilion where they will play music, discuss philosophy and write poetry. It is an ideal scene of the retired life of an intellectual, and a charming subject for contemplation by a hectic scholar-official of the Qing dynasty. The style of painting is characteristic of the 17th century, with wonderfully strange, twisted peaks and strong light/dark contrasts.
The 'bird and flower' scene on the reverse relates closely to Chinese fan paintings, and is discussed by M. Medley, "Sources of Decoration in Chinese Porcelain from the 14th to 16th Century", Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia, no. 5, Percival David Foundation, London, 1975, p. 63, where a detail of an anonymous Song painting and a Ming woodblock print with similar depictions of a perched bird are illustrated, pl. III a and c respectively.
The landscape scene depicted represents a classic theme where two scholars and their attendants, each carrying a qin, traverse a majestic landscape towards a rustic pavilion where they will play music, discuss philosophy and write poetry. It is an ideal scene of the retired life of an intellectual, and a charming subject for contemplation by a hectic scholar-official of the Qing dynasty. The style of painting is characteristic of the 17th century, with wonderfully strange, twisted peaks and strong light/dark contrasts.
The 'bird and flower' scene on the reverse relates closely to Chinese fan paintings, and is discussed by M. Medley, "Sources of Decoration in Chinese Porcelain from the 14th to 16th Century", Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia, no. 5, Percival David Foundation, London, 1975, p. 63, where a detail of an anonymous Song painting and a Ming woodblock print with similar depictions of a perched bird are illustrated, pl. III a and c respectively.