A 'Figural Landscape' rhinoceros horn libation cup by Zhou Wenshu, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period

9 octobre 2013

A 'Figural Landscape' rhinoceros horn libation cup by Zhou Wenshu, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period

A 'Figural Landscape' rhinoceros horn libation cup by Zhou Wenshu, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period. Photo: Sotheby's.

deftly carved in deep relief around the exterior with a continuous landscape in imitation of classical ink painting, one side depicting a scholar seated at ease in a boat with an attendant at the prow fanning charcoals under a kettle, navigating on rippling waters towards an open-air gazebo built on the opposite riverbank, with a waterfall rushing in the distance, all below cloud-enshrouded cliffs and tall overhanging wutong and paulownia trees, their trunk forming an openwork handle at one end of the horn, the interior left plain with only a subtle ridge outlining the irregularly shaped rim cleverly worked to accent the three-dimensionality of the scene, the horn richly patinated to a warm honey colour evolving to a deeper lustrous burnt-caramel tone on the underside, signed Wenshu, stand; 15 cm., 6 7/8 in. Estimation 1,000,000 - 1,500,000 HKD. Lot vendu: 2,440,000 HKD

Provenance: Christie’s New York, 2nd December 1985, lot 365.

Exhibition: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth: Gems of Antiquities Collections in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 2004.

Litterature: Thomas Fok, Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 210-211, pl. 154.
Yi liang xijiao san liang jin, Art and Collection, 2001, no. 105, p. 101.

The present exquisite cup is a masterpiece by the late Ming dynasty carver Zhou Wenshu. Jan Chapman in The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, pp.142-144, lists Zhou as a carver from Shangyuan (present day Nanjing in Jiangsu province) who was active in the early 17th century and who loved to translate painted handscrolls into carvings. Three cups decorated with scenes copied from paintings and signed by Zhou are known.

This cup, meticulously carved with a river-landscape, unquestionably found inspiration from literary paintings of the Ming dynasty. Taking boat trips surrounded by an idyllic landscape was a pleasurable activity among the gentry and scholar-officials of the period, and this subject transferred onto a rhinoceros horn carvings would have been commissioned by members of the elite society.

For examples of carvings by Zhou, see one in the collection of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, illustrated Chapman, op.cit., p. 142, pl. 164, that bears an inscription indicating that the carving is based on a painted handscroll by the Ming artist Wen Boren (1502-75) and also with a cyclical date wuxu which may possibly correspond to 1658. The Chester Beatty Library has two further cups by Zhou, one decorated with figures in landscape, included ibid., pl. 166, and the other depicting a picture of the eight immortals drinking in a mountain setting, ibid., pl. 274. Another vessel by Zhou, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, incised with his signature,Wenshu, is included in the museum’s official website www.antiquities.npm.gov.tw and is also illustrated ibid., pl. 167. Chapman mentions further examples of Zhou’s works in the collections of the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., in the Ostasiatiska Museet, Stockholm and in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. (See ibid., p. 144).

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. Hong Kong | 08 Oct 2013 -www.sothebys.com