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拍品专文
The unusual and beautifully-carved decoration on this cup depicts a scene that is both visually pleasing and subtly significant. A horse is shown with head bent down, drinking from a stream, watched, from the other side of the stream, by a scholar and his attendant. It is noteworthy that the horse has no bridle, head collar or leading rein. This depiction of the horse as free and unfettered may suggest an honest scholar official who has not compromised his integrity for political or financial gain. However it could also suggest that the man on the other side of the stream is the famous Warring States connoisseur of horses Sun Yang, who is usually known as Bole. Bole's ability to identify exceptional horses was such that even the King of Chu enlisted his help in finding a steed that could gallop a thousand miles a day.
The story of Bole was used by the Tang dynasty literatus Han Yu (AD762-824) to explain how sometimes scholars of merit were overlooked by rulers. Han Yu stated that: 'There are always excellent horses, but there is not always a Bole - the excellent judge of horses'. In the Yuan dynasty when Chinese scholars felt themselves to be disenfranchised by the Mongol rulers, this became a particularly poignant theme amongst artists. There are several such paintings by the Yuan artist Zhao Mengfu. One of Zhao Mengfu's paintings of a horse and groom, dated 1296, in which the horse is standing with head raised, is in the Metropolitan Museum. However another painting by the same artist entitled Horse and Groom in the Wind, which is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (illustrated by J. Cahil in Hills Beyond a River, New York/Tokyo, 1976,, pl. 8), shows the horse with its head down in a stance closer to that on the current rhinoceros horn cup. The theme of grooms, or more rarely scholars, leading horses had also been a popular one in Chinese painting of the Song dynasty. Famous paintings of this subject include a Song dynasty hand-scroll entitled Five Horses and Grooms by Li Gonglin (illustrated by J. Cahill, in op. cit., pl. 88).
Two rhinoceros horn cups from the Chester Beatty collection which have horses, without human figures, in a rocky landscape are illustrated by Jan Chapman in The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, p. 177, pl. 232, and p. 180, pl. 238. On the first of these the horse is shown with lowered head drinking from a steam, as it is on the current cup. Also like the current cup, the first Chester Beatty cup depicts willow branches overhanging both the stream and the horse. A rhinoceros horn cup carved with a groom standing beside a horse which grazes with its head lowered was sold in our New York rooms on 19 September 2007, lot 6.
Please note this lot is accompanied by a letter from Animal Health agreeing that Christie's may sell it without further CITES certification and confirming that they would be likely to grant an export permit for it to leave the EU post-sale.
The story of Bole was used by the Tang dynasty literatus Han Yu (AD762-824) to explain how sometimes scholars of merit were overlooked by rulers. Han Yu stated that: 'There are always excellent horses, but there is not always a Bole - the excellent judge of horses'. In the Yuan dynasty when Chinese scholars felt themselves to be disenfranchised by the Mongol rulers, this became a particularly poignant theme amongst artists. There are several such paintings by the Yuan artist Zhao Mengfu. One of Zhao Mengfu's paintings of a horse and groom, dated 1296, in which the horse is standing with head raised, is in the Metropolitan Museum. However another painting by the same artist entitled Horse and Groom in the Wind, which is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (illustrated by J. Cahil in Hills Beyond a River, New York/Tokyo, 1976,, pl. 8), shows the horse with its head down in a stance closer to that on the current rhinoceros horn cup. The theme of grooms, or more rarely scholars, leading horses had also been a popular one in Chinese painting of the Song dynasty. Famous paintings of this subject include a Song dynasty hand-scroll entitled Five Horses and Grooms by Li Gonglin (illustrated by J. Cahill, in op. cit., pl. 88).
Two rhinoceros horn cups from the Chester Beatty collection which have horses, without human figures, in a rocky landscape are illustrated by Jan Chapman in The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, p. 177, pl. 232, and p. 180, pl. 238. On the first of these the horse is shown with lowered head drinking from a steam, as it is on the current cup. Also like the current cup, the first Chester Beatty cup depicts willow branches overhanging both the stream and the horse. A rhinoceros horn cup carved with a groom standing beside a horse which grazes with its head lowered was sold in our New York rooms on 19 September 2007, lot 6.
Please note this lot is accompanied by a letter from Animal Health agreeing that Christie's may sell it without further CITES certification and confirming that they would be likely to grant an export permit for it to leave the EU post-sale.