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拍品专文
These current album pages depicting the personal porcelain collection of the Emperor Qianlong are extremely rare. According to the Imperial Workshop Archives (Huoji dang), the Qianlong emperor assembled a series of ‘boxes of many treasures’ (duobaoge) to classify and rearrange his favourite pieces among his personal collection of ceramics and archaic bronzes between 1755 and 1790. To accompany these boxes, he commissioned specific painting albums to record every single piece which were then placed carefully into each treasures box.
Our two album pages were separated into two parts to be framed as paintings by the former English collector and the lower half of the double page containing the inscriptions were hidden behind the frames. All together, they form two double pages strikingly similar to the imperial album of ten leaves entitled "the Refined Ceramics of Collected Antiquity" (Jing Tao Yun Gu), ordered by the Emperor Qianlong around the fifty-fifth year of his reign (1790) for one of his duobaoge containing a selection of Song and Ming ceramics, today conserved in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Yu Pei-Chin, “De Jia Qu: Obtaining refined enjoyment: The Qianlong emperor’s taste in ceramics”, 2012, P.27. The extreme similarities in the treatment of the floral border, the choice and even the placement of the imperial seals suggest that the current two album pages were likely produced around the same time as Jing Tao Yun Gu, by the end of the emperor Qianlong’s reign, around 1790.
Just like our albums leaves, each page in the Jing Tao Yun Gu depicts a coloured drawing of one individual porcelain piece painted with high realism in the upper page and a physical description of the object including the name, the dating, the colour, the dimensions, the type of kiln and a personal comment on the lower half. Highly realism in the brushwork reflects the influences of the Western court painters but also the emperor’s wish to keep an accurate visual record of each object, with all its noteworthy features. For instance, on the copper red Xuande dish of one of our album leaves, the meticulous court painter objectively rendered the frits and the wear around the rims. This type of realistic illustrations reminds us of the beautiful handscroll “Pictures of Ancient Playthings” (Guwan tu) ordered and painted by his father, under the Yongzheng emperor’s reign, today in the collection of the Victoria and Albert museum (Museum number: E.59-1911). However, compared to the form of the pictorial inventory in Gu Wan Tu, the Qianlong’s emperor’s albums clearly give more importance to the individual identity of each object, just like a museum record or an illustrated catalogue. The presence of numerous personal seals of the emperor also shows that these albums and objects were contemplated, appreciated and deeply treasured by the Emperor himself.
There are eight such albums preserved in collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei. According to Yu Pei-chin, there were at least fourteen similar albums and more than twenty treasures boxes containing ceramics and bronzes assembled during the Qianlong reign.
The records of these albums constitute inestimable sources of learning and understanding the inventory of the imperial collection of the Qianlong emperor’s but also his personal taste. The descriptions also sometimes reveal that his comprehension about ancient ceramics and bronzes could be obsolete and incorrect based on today’s knowledge. For instance, the turquoise enamelled vase seems to be a Kangxi model rather than a Jiajing one as described by the emperor.
Our two album pages were separated into two parts to be framed as paintings by the former English collector and the lower half of the double page containing the inscriptions were hidden behind the frames. All together, they form two double pages strikingly similar to the imperial album of ten leaves entitled "the Refined Ceramics of Collected Antiquity" (Jing Tao Yun Gu), ordered by the Emperor Qianlong around the fifty-fifth year of his reign (1790) for one of his duobaoge containing a selection of Song and Ming ceramics, today conserved in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Yu Pei-Chin, “De Jia Qu: Obtaining refined enjoyment: The Qianlong emperor’s taste in ceramics”, 2012, P.27. The extreme similarities in the treatment of the floral border, the choice and even the placement of the imperial seals suggest that the current two album pages were likely produced around the same time as Jing Tao Yun Gu, by the end of the emperor Qianlong’s reign, around 1790.
Just like our albums leaves, each page in the Jing Tao Yun Gu depicts a coloured drawing of one individual porcelain piece painted with high realism in the upper page and a physical description of the object including the name, the dating, the colour, the dimensions, the type of kiln and a personal comment on the lower half. Highly realism in the brushwork reflects the influences of the Western court painters but also the emperor’s wish to keep an accurate visual record of each object, with all its noteworthy features. For instance, on the copper red Xuande dish of one of our album leaves, the meticulous court painter objectively rendered the frits and the wear around the rims. This type of realistic illustrations reminds us of the beautiful handscroll “Pictures of Ancient Playthings” (Guwan tu) ordered and painted by his father, under the Yongzheng emperor’s reign, today in the collection of the Victoria and Albert museum (Museum number: E.59-1911). However, compared to the form of the pictorial inventory in Gu Wan Tu, the Qianlong’s emperor’s albums clearly give more importance to the individual identity of each object, just like a museum record or an illustrated catalogue. The presence of numerous personal seals of the emperor also shows that these albums and objects were contemplated, appreciated and deeply treasured by the Emperor himself.
There are eight such albums preserved in collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei. According to Yu Pei-chin, there were at least fourteen similar albums and more than twenty treasures boxes containing ceramics and bronzes assembled during the Qianlong reign.
The records of these albums constitute inestimable sources of learning and understanding the inventory of the imperial collection of the Qianlong emperor’s but also his personal taste. The descriptions also sometimes reveal that his comprehension about ancient ceramics and bronzes could be obsolete and incorrect based on today’s knowledge. For instance, the turquoise enamelled vase seems to be a Kangxi model rather than a Jiajing one as described by the emperor.