18TH-19TH CENTURY

Luxuriously embellished panels of this type, inlaid with whimsical groupings of scholarly desk articles or with poems and scholarly excerpts, such as the current panels, rendered in a variety of materials, such as jade, porcelain, cloisonné enamel, ivory and other precious materials, all typically reserved on a lacquer ground, can be found amongst Palace furnishings.

Emperor Qianlong (r. 1736-95) was known for his artistic and scholarly pursuits and received rigorous training in traditional Chinese calligraphy. The inscriptions on the present panels are based on excerpts of Qianlong’s calligraphy in the style of the acclaimed Eastern Jin calligrapher Wang Xizhi’s (AD 303-61) masterworks Jixue ninghan tie (Accumulated Snow and Cold Winter Calligraphy Exemplar), illustrated on the left, and Zhanji Hutao tie (Blanket and Walnut Calligraphy Exemplar), illustrated on the right. Another example of Qianlong’s calligraphy based on Wang Xizhi’s Blanket and Walnut Calligraphy Exemplar can be seen in a carved and gilt-decorated jade book set in the collection of Nanjing Museum. See https://www.njmuseum.com/zh/collectionDetails?id=25. The jade book is dated by inscription to the wuchen year (corresponding to 1748).