Ecran de table impérial en jade vert épinard. Chine, dynastie Qing, époque Qianlong (1736-1795). photo Sotheby's
rectangulaire, chaque face sculptée d'un paysage rocailleux planté de pins, d'un côté Su Shi contemplant un rocher avec ses deux compagnons, l'autre sculpté d'une barque chargée de cinq personnages voguant sur une rivière, chaque face portant une inscription à six colonnes en linshu en caractères incisés et dorés, socle en bronze patiné tardif; 14,2 x 24,6 cm, 5 9/16 x 9 5/8 in. Est; 100,000—150,000 EUR. Lot Sold 384,750 EUR
PROVENANCE: Hotel Drouot, Paris, étude Gros & Delettrez et Voutier SVV. M. Lescop de Moy, 23 avril 2003.
NOTE: One side of the screen is inscribed with the poem titled Yuti Hou Chibi tu (Later Red Cliff Rhapsody) by the Qianlong Emperor. This poem is recorded in the Yuzhi shiji (Imperial Poetry Collection) compiled in the Siku quanshu (Library of the Four Treasuries), Sanji, 42:13b, and can be translated as follows:
Whenever has it not been hard
to bear the cold up high?
From steep mountain top, air sharp and luminous,
he looks down on blue-green waves.
Hanging back, his two guests
go on arguing this or that,
But now one points up to the sky
and so they see him there.
The reverse is inscribed with the poem titled Yuti Qian Chibi tu (Former Red Cliff Rhaspsody) by the Qianlong Emperor. This poem is recorded in the Yuzhi shiji (Imperial Poetry Collection) compiled in the Siku quanshu (Library of the Four Treasures), Sanji, 32:20b, and can be translated as follows:
Moon white and breeze pure
that autumn of the year renxu,
When with profound delight Dongpo
let his boat float free.
To have an illustration carved in jade
only such as this is suitable,
And who other than a Shuze
would dare keep it company!
It is clear that the Qianlong emperor was so inspired by the famous 11th century 'Red Cliff' poems of Su Dongpo illustrated on the present screen that he had his own thoughts included in verse form. This was by no means an unusual occurance, as the Qianlong emperor was well-known for having his poetry inscribed on works which had captured his imagination. A spinach-green screen depicting Daoist figures in a mountainous landscape, also inscribed with an imperial poem, is illustrated in Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 124, pp. 154-155. For a 'mountain' landscape, depicting a boat being carried on a swift current beneath rocky cliffs from the Qing court collection, see The Refined Taste of the Emperor : Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictoral Jades of the Ch'ing Court, Taipei, 1997, no. 49, pp. 160-161. See also a carved 'mountain' with very similar composition of river-boat and cliffs, with incised Imperial poem illustrated in Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 127, pp 160-161 and for an Imperially inscribed pine trees and figures vertical spinach-green jade vertical screen, see also The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, vol. 42, ill. 46
Sotheby's. Asian Art, 16 Dec 10, Paris www.sothebys.com
