A EXCEEDINGLY RARE IMPERIAL YELLOW-GROUND FALANGCAI 'FLORAL' BOWL

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A Rare Masterpiece of the Enameller's Art Rosemary Scott, International Academic Director, Asian Art This bowl belongs to a relatively small group of porcelain vessels made for the Kangxi Emperor which have egg-yolk yellow grounds, floral designs and four-character yuzhi marks written in rouge enamel. All of the examples of this group preserved in international collections display very fine painting, but the current bowl is undoubtedly one of the finest of all. The rendering of the flowers is exquisite and the artist's appreciation of the textures and volume of the petals of the different flowers has created a design that is reminiscent of paintings by the famous artist Yun Shouping (1633-1690)(fig. 1). The overglaze enamels used on this bowl incorporate the whole range of new colours developed at the end of the Kangxi reign in response to the Kangxi emperor's admiration of European enamels, and his determination that Chinese craftsmen should also be able to produce fine enamelled wares. The Emperor's admiration for these foreign enamels is well documented, as are the steps he took to ensure comparable Chinese production. These included the establishment of ateliers in the Beijing palace, among which were those charged with producing enamels. In his quest for exquisite enamelled wares bearing the whole range of colours seen on European pieces, Kangxi involved a number of the European Jesuit missionaries, including the German Kilian Stumpf, who was co-opted in 1696 to supervise the new glass imperial glassworks. The result of all the research and development carried out at the imperial ateliers was that by the final years of the Kangxi reign a whole raft of new enamel colours were available for use by the ceramic decorators. Plain, white glazed, porcelains were sent from Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province in the south to the palace in Beijing, where they were inspected personally by the emperor. After his approval had been granted they were transferred to the appropriate workshop for decoration. On this bowl can be seen a number of the newly developed enamel colours that were to revolutionise Chinese porcelain decoration. The ground colour on this bowl is one of these. The earlier Kangxi yellow was paler, transparent, and more lemon-toned. The new yellow enamel used as the ground colour for this bowl is thicker, opaque and a rich egg-yolk colour. It apparently became a favourite with the emperor, judging by the relatively high proportion of yellow-ground bowls preserved in the palace collections compared to those of other colours. The enamel colour used for the yuzhi marks on the bases of these bowls was either cobalt blue or rouge pink - both new colours. The pink, in which the mark on the current bowl is written, was the new pink derived from colloidal gold, which gave its name to famille rose. This pink composed of ruby glass ground and suspended in a clear enamel matrix allowed greater delicacy and control than the European 'Purple of Cassius', as can be seen on the roses and one of the chrysanthemums on the current bowl. The blue enamel had been produced after considerable effort to minimise the effects of the manganese found in the Chinese cobalt ore, and can be seen used to excellent effect on both chrysanthemums and daylilies on this bowl. Although relatively little of it can be seen on the surface of the painting, the other very important new enamel colour that has been used on this bowl is opaque white. This white enabled the decorator to mix colours and produce pastel shades, and also to paint other colours over the white enamel to achieve delicate shading. Both techniques can be seen on this bowl. There are two distinct groups of imperial Kangxi yellow-ground bowls - those with bold formal floral scrolls and those, like the current bowl, with more gracefully naturalistic plants growing up from the junction of the sides with the foot of the bowl. It seems possible that the latter group are slightly later in the period than the formal scroll group, since they are closer in decorative style to porcelains of the Yongzheng reign and also appear to employ a the full range of enamel colours, some of which were only developed towards the very end of the Kangxi reign. The way the enamels are used on the naturalistically painted Kangxi bowls have a delicacy and use of open space which presages that of the early Yongzheng wares. A comparison of both the flowers and the leaves on the current bowl with those on fine imperial Yongzheng enamelled porcelains shows how similar they are in treatment. The delicate shading of the rose and chrysanthemum petals on the current bowl shows this particularly clearly. There are two very slightly smaller bowls in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, which are very similar in their form to the current vessel, and share naturalistic floral decoration (illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 39, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 6, no.4 and p. 8, no. 6). Both have rich egg-yolk yellow grounds and are decorated with naturalistically disposed peony blossoms. One (no. 6) has a blue enamel yuzhi mark, while the other (no. 4) has a pink enamel yuzhi mark. Two smaller yellow-ground bowls with floral designs in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (illustrated in Fine-Enamelled Ware of the Ch'ing Dynasty - Kang-hsi Period, Cafa, Hong Kong, 1967, pp 74-5, no. 25, and pp. 78-9, no. 27), also have delicate, naturalistically-painted floral decoration. One of these (no. 25) is decorated with lotus and aquatic plants, while the other (no. 27) is decorated with a variety of autumn flowers, including chrysanthemums. The depiction of these latter flowers is very similar to that of the chrysanthemums on the current bowl. The rouge enamel Kangxi yuzhi mark on the 'autumn flower' bowl in the National Palace Museum, Taipei also shares with the current bowl the distinctive calligraphic style of its rouge enamel yuzhi mark. The current bowl has a very finely painted decorative scheme, which depicts three flowers that are especially popular with Chinese decorators - chrysanthemum, daylily and rose. These are all shown in a naturalistic arrangement, as if growing from the junction between the foot and the lower part of the exterior sides of the bowl. Each of the flowers has been chosen for its special meaning. In China the chrysanthemum is regarded as one of the 'four gentlemen of flowers', along with lotus, orchid and bamboo. Chrysanthemums have a long history of cultural significance in China and are mentioned in such early classical literature as the Shijing (The Book of Odes). They are symbols of longevity and wealth as well as being the flowers representing autumn. The reason chrysanthemums are associated with longevity is because the word for chrysanthemum (ju) sounds similar to the word (jiu) meaning 'a long time', and also because infusions made from their petals have medicinal properties. Perhaps because of their multiplicity of petals, chrysanthemums are also associated with wealth. This bowl is decorated with chrysanthemums in four different colours. The pink and the blue flowers are painted using two tones of their respective colours. The white blossom has pale blue brush-strokes towards the end of the petals and pink highlights towards the centre of the flower. These combine to give the flower a particularly etherial appearance. The fourth chrysanthemum blossom is painted in a subtle combination of colours. The white petals appear to be outlined in deep blue, while the tips of the petals are highlighted in purple and the part of the petals nearest to the centre of the flower are shaded with apple green. The roses on this bowl are also painted with considerable ingenuity, and in a way that emphasizes the soft, velvet, texture of their petals. Only two colours are used, one of which is the new opaque white enamel and the other the new colloidal gold pink enamel. The base colour of the petals is white and the pink has been applied in various densities to produce different intensities of the colour. It is also noticeable that while some of the petals are outlined using an extremely thin pink line, other petals are outlined using a narrow area of reserved white. This technique provides a pleasing and effective contrast with the technique used on the other flowers on the bowl. The roses on this bowl are of a type known as Chinese rose - a flower that combines beauty with auspicious associations. Since the rose has such a long flowering season, it is sometimes known as 'the flower of eternal spring' or 'flower of eternal youth' (changchunhua), and it is therefore a symbol of long life. Another of the names applied to this flower derives from the fact that it bears blossoms in almost every month - it is therefore known as the 'monthly rose' (yueji), and this in turn leads the rose to be a rebus for the 'four seasons' ( siji qu), or 'year-long'. The daylilies on this bowl are painted in yet another style, which serves to emphasise one of their particular features. The trumpet-like flowers are shown with the ends of their petals elegantly curling, creating a subtle impression of movement. One of the daylily flowers is painted in white with different intensities of cobalt blue creating the characteristic stripes and speckles on the upper surface of the petals. The anthers in the centre of the flower are painted in yellow, using the new enamel's ability to appear impasto on the surface of the vessel. The second of the daylily flowers is essentially white, but has been given characteristic stripes and delicate spotting in black, deep pink and yellow, in a way that renders the flower colourful, but still delicate, in appearance. Like chrysanthemums, daylilies also have an ancient literary history in China, and they too are mentioned in the Shi Jing (Book of Odes). Daylilies are also mentioned in China's earliest materia medica the Shen Nong Bencao Jing (Herbal Classic of Shen Nong), which was traditionally attributed to the mythical Emperor Shen Nong (the Divine Farmer) who was supposed to have lived c. 2800 BC, although the Shen Nong Bencao Jing probably dates to the Eastern Han dynasty (AD 25-220). The daylily was already known in Western Asia by the 1st century AD and is mentioned in the writings of both Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) and the Cilician physician, pharmacologist and botanist Pedanius Dioscorides (c. AD 40-90) in his De Materia Medica. The botanical name for the daylily, is Hemerocallis, which comes from the Greek hemera, meaning day, and kalos, meaning beautiful, and their elegant form has ensured that they have remained popular flowers in the West, as well as in China. However, it is not only for their beauty that daylilies have remained a popular motif on the Chinese decorative arts. The flower also has auspicious associations, which have encouraged its frequent inclusion in floral designs of many kinds. In Chinese the daylily is known as xuancao, and xuan is a traditional honorific way to refer to one's mother. The flower is also a symbol of longevity, and thus daylilies could be used to honour one's mother and to wish her long life. The roots of daylilies were used to prepare medicine, which was believed to be effective against fevers and liver complaints. In China daylilies are also popularly called wangyoucao ('grief dispelling plant') or yi'nancao ('boy-favouring herb'). It was believed that they could raise the spirits and banish grief, while a pregnant woman who wore daylilies could be expected to bear a boy child. This rare bowl thus bears a design rich in auspicious wishes, and is also a superb example of enamel painting which fully utilizing the new enamel colours perfected in the first quarter of the 18th century. Not only were these used to painterly effect on obvious parts of the design, such the blossoms, but also on smaller areas, such as the underside of the tips of rose leaves, the edge of calyxes, and the centres of buds. The bowl is undoubtedly a masterpiece of the enameller's art.

A EXCEEDINGLY RARE IMPERIAL YELLOW-GROUND FALANGCAI 'FLORAL' BOWL

KANGXI PINK-ENAMELLED FOUR-CHARACTER YUZHI MARK WITHIN DOUBLE SQUARES AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722)

Details

A EXCEEDINGLY RARE IMPERIAL YELLOW-GROUND FALANGCAI 'FLORAL' BOWL
KANGXI PINK-ENAMELLED FOUR-CHARACTER YUZHI MARK WITHIN DOUBLE SQUARES AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722)
The bowl is finely potted with thin rounded walls rising to a slightly everted rim, exquisitely enamelled around the exterior with a myriad of blooming flowers including roses and buds in delicate shades of pink, lush chrysanthemum in soft tones of lilac, blue and pink as well as daylilies picked out in blue and pale lime green, all amidst dense foliage in two shades of green and against a brilliant egg-yolk yellow ground. The interior and base are covered with a transparent glaze.
5 5/8 in. (14.2 cm.) diam.

Provenance

Acquired in France
Sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 April 2007, lot 504

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