Lot 290. A blue and white ko-sometsuke jar, 17th century; 6 ¼ in. (15.9 cm.) high. Estimate £2,000 – £3,000 ($3,194 – $4,791). Price Realized  £8,125 ($12,976). © Christie’s Image Ltd 2014

The cylindrical jar is painted to the exterior with two bands of scrolling lotus branches on a blue ground, surrounding a central band of peony, prunus and lotus blooms reserved on various diaper grounds. 

Provenance: Formerly in a private American collection

Christie’s. CHINESE CERAMICS, WORKS OF ART AND TEXTILES PART I, 4 November 2014, London, South Kensington

Lot 291. A wucai'Buddhist Lion' censer and cover, Ming dynasty, 17th century; 10½ in. (26.6 cm.) high. Estimate GBP 10,000 - GBP 15,000. Price realised GBP 12,500. © Christie’s Image Ltd 2014

The censer and cover is modelled in the form of a Buddhist lion standing with upright bushy tail. Its removable single-horned head has bulging eyes and a wide open mouth. The body is decorated with lotus blooms and stylised flower-heads below a band of ruyi and its head is depicted with a knotted hair design. 

Christie’s. CHINESE CERAMICS, WORKS OF ART AND TEXTILES PART I, 4 November 2014, London, South Kensington

Lot 287. A white-glazed stem bowl, Ming dynasty, 17th century; 5 ½ in. (14 cm.) diam. Estimate £600 - GBP 1,000Price Realized £1,500. © Christie’s Image Ltd 2014

The bowl is incised around the sides of the interior with a continuous floral scroll design and is covered in a bluish-white glaze which is fired to a dark brown around the rim. 

Christie’s. CHINESE CERAMICS, WORKS OF ART AND TEXTILES PART I, 4 November 2014, London, South Kensington

Lot 1. A large blue and white oviform jar, Transitional period, circa 1640; 11½ in. (29.3 cm.) high. Estimate £6,000 – £10,000 ($9,582 – $15,970). Price Realized  £9,375 ($14,972). © Christie’s Image Ltd 2014

The jar is decorated to the exterior in varying shades of cobalt blue with a continuous scene from Sanguo Yanyi, ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, between two bands of incised floral designs. The neck is painted with a band of stiff leaves. 

Provenance: Sold at Christie’s London, 2 November 1987, lot 230

Christie’s. CHINESE CERAMICS, WORKS OF ART AND TEXTILES PART I, 4 November 2014, London, South Kensington

Lot 3. A blue and white ‘Mythical Beast’ jar, Transitional period, circa 1640-1660; 10 ½ in. (26.7 cm.) high. Estimate £7,000 – £9,000 ($11,179 – $14,373). Price Realized  £10,000 ($15,970). © Christie’s Image Ltd 2014

The jar is decorated to the exterior in vibrant shades of cobalt blue with a continuous scene of various mythical beasts beside pine and plantain trees emerging from rocks, all below an incised floral band and a stiff leaf border to the neck. 

Christie’s. CHINESE CERAMICS, WORKS OF ART AND TEXTILES PART I, 4 November 2014, London, South Kensington

Lot 227. A small Dingyao foliate dish, Northern Song Dynasty; 10.3cm (in) diam. Estimate £2,000 – 3,000 (€2,700 – 4,000). Sold for £4,375 (€4,931). Photo Bonhams.

The small dish with six moulded lobes, the foliate rim unglazed, all covered in a lustrous ivory hued glaze, box. (2).

Bonhams. ASIAN ART, 25 Feb 2015 10:30 GMT – LONDON, KNIGHTSBRIDGE

Lot 228. A Yaozhou-type conical bowl, Song Dynasty; 12.5cm (5in) diam. Estimate £1,000 – 1,500 (€1,300 – 2,000). Sold for £1,750 (€1,972). Photo Bonhams.

Moulded to the interior with stylised scrolling chrysanthemum on a dense foliage ground, around a central flower head, the exterior with carved vertical ribs, covered overall in a glassy, olive green glaze pooling in the crevices to highlight the design, fitted box. 

Bonhams. ASIAN ART, 25 Feb 2015 10:30 GMT – LONDON, KNIGHTSBRIDGE

Lot 229. A fahua-type double gourd vase, 16th century; 41.5cm (16 1/4in) high. Sold for £3,750 (€4,226). Photo Bonhams.

The globular body decorated in yellow, aubergine and turquoise lead glazes with raised slipwork depicting poets and scholars relaxing in a landscape, the waist and neck embellished with foliate meanders and foliate lappet bands. 

Note: For a simliar example dated circa 1522-66 see J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, British Museum Press 2001, p. 414, no. 13:10.

Double-gourd porcelain bottle with 'fahua'-type decoration, Ming dynasty, probably Jiajing period (1522-1566). Height: 47.3 cm. 1936,1012.237 © 2017 Trustees of the British Museum

Bonhams. ASIAN ART, 25 Feb 2015 10:30 GMT – LONDON, KNIGHTSBRIDGE

Lot 30. A blue and white bowl, Jiajing six-character mark and of the period (1522-1566); 29cm (11.3/8in) wide max. Estimate £2000 – 3000 (€2700 – 4000). Sold for £2,375 (€2,676). Photo Bonhams.

Painted to the exterior with five double crane and cloud scroll roundels, beneath a border of the ba anxian alternating with fruit and flower sprays, a lappet border above the foot, the interior with a further crane and cloud scroll roundel. 

Bonhams. ASIAN ART, 25 Feb 2015 10:30 GMT – LONDON, KNIGHTSBRIDGE

Lot 6. A blue and white oviform jar, Chongzhen period (1621-1644); 26cm (10.1/4in) high. Estimate £2000 – 3000 (€2700 – 4000). Sold for £4,750 (€5,353). Photo Bonhams. 

Painted with birds in flight amongst stylised cloud scrolls and in a garden of rockwork, peonies, chrysanthemums, bamboo and foliage, the neck with a band of foliate pendants. 

J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851), Harbour View, about 1826. Bodycolour on blue paper, 13.9 x 18.9 cm. Collection: Scottish National Gallery, Henry Vaughan Bequest 1900.

EDINBURGH.- 2018 will begin at the National Galleries of Scotland, as it does every year, with a wonderful tradition: the opening of Turner in January, an exhibition of the outstanding collection of Turner watercolours bequeathed in 1900 by Henry Vaughan (1809-1899) and supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery for the sixth year. 

The son of a London Quaker hat manufacturer, Vaughan inherited a fortune in 1828 and devoted his life to travel, philanthropy and amassing a rich and varied collection of fine and decorative art. His interests ranged from sculpture, Spanish clocks, ivories and bronzes to medieval stained glass, Old Master drawings and Rembrandt etchings, but he is best known as a collector of nineteenth-century British art, particularly Turner and Constable. Vaughan owned Constable’s The Hay-Wain for twenty years, which he presented to the National Gallery in London in 1886, and fifteen oil sketches by Constable, three superb examples of which are currently on loan to the National Galleries of Scotland from Tate through the exhibition Constable & McTaggart: A Meeting of Two Masterpieces (until 25 March 2018). 

Above all, however, Vaughan had a passion for the work of Turner and for every aspect of Turner’s watercolour output, from his early topographical drawings and designs for engraving to his private sketches and brilliantly free, late watercolours. Vaughan’s collection of more than 100 watercolours amounted to a comprehensive overview of Turner’s graphic work and it was described in one of his obituaries as ‘singularly choice and indeed hardly paralleled in this country’. The 38 watercolours bequeathed to the National Galleries of Scotland by Vaughan likewise encapsulate the artist’s entire career, ranging from the subtle and meticulous ‘Monro School’ watercolours of the 1790s, such as Rye, Sussex and Lake Albano, to the spectacular Venetian views of 1840, such as The Piazzetta, Venice and Venice from the Laguna, which capture the drama and explosive skies of late summer Adriatic storms. 

As well as having a connoisseur’s eye for quality, Vaughan was also concerned about how his bequest should be displayed. He stipulated that these delicate works should be ‘exhibited to the public all at one time free of charge during the month of January in every year… and no longer time in every year’, to limit their exposure to strong daylight and protect the pigments from fading. His foresight means that the watercolours are notable for their fine condition. The Vaughan Turner display has run throughout the month of January since 1900 and brings a welcome injection of light and colour at the darkest time of the year in Scotland. 

This year six of Turner’s watercolour illustrations to the Collected Poems of the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell, also from the NGS collection, will be included in the exhibition. These will complement his designs for illustrations to the work of Sir Walter Scott, which form part of the Vaughan Bequest. Turner visited Scott at his home at Abbotsford in August 1831 and made sketches of the house and grounds, on which he based his finished watercolours. Rhymer’s Glen, Abbotsford represents Scott’s favourite spot on the estate for composition and contemplation, while Chiefswood Cottage, Abbotsford depicts the summer home of Scott’s daughter, Charlotte Sophia and her husband, John Gibson Lockhart. Both vignettes were engraved as illustrations to different volumes of Scott’s Miscellaneous Prose Works. Other illustrations to Scott’s work include the spectacular Loch Coruisk, Skye (1831-4), produced to illustrate the poem The Lord of the Isles, in which swirling clouds bear down on the peaks of the Cuillin mountain range and human figures appear like ants against the might of nature. 

During the 1830s Turner received an increasing number of commissions to design vignette illustrations for books. The introduction of engraving on steel in the 1820s made possible the production of engraved book illustrations of enormous detail and refinement. Turner was an acknowledged master of the art, able to capture vast and dramatic landscapes on a miniature scale. His commissions included illustrations for volumes of John Milton, John Bunyan and the contemporary writers Samuel Rogers, Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott and Thomas Campbell. Although Turner’s vignettes are now a lesser known aspect of his artistic activity, in his own lifetime they contributed greatly to the spread of his fame. He worked on best-selling publications, such as Samuel Rogers’s Italy in 1830, of which it was said that there was scarcely an educated household that did not possess a copy. To have Turner’s name attached to a publication could add greatly to the likely commercial success of the venture, as Scott’s publisher Robert Cadell attested when he pushed for Turner to be appointed as the illustrator for the new edition of Scott’s Poetical Works in 1831, claiming that ‘with his pencil, I shall insure the subscription of 8,000, without, not 3,000’. 

Turner’s illustrations to The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell, executed in 1835-6, cover a broad range of subject matter, from military skirmishes to complex prophesies and scenes of Scottish romance and history. Campbell (1777-1844) was the son of a Glasgow tobacco merchant. He achieved rapid success aged twenty two with his first book The Pleasures of Hope (1799) and travelled widely in Europe, before becoming a lecturer, editor and rector of Glasgow University, as well as a highly regarded poet. The vignette illustrations on display will include Lochiel’s Warning, in which a wizard confronts the Jacobite leader Donald Cameron of Lochiel, attempting to warn him of the horrors of Culloden and its aftermath. Also on show will be one of the most outstanding vignettes in the series, Kosciuszko: The Pleasures of Hope, which depicts with remarkable power the 1794 uprising in Warsaw against Russian rule led by the Polish solider and statesman Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746-1814). 

Christopher Baker, Acting Director of the Scottish National Gallery said: “We welcome in the new year with this spectacular display of Turner’s glowing watercolours, which demonstrate the extraordinary range of his artistic skills throughout his life, as well as the refined taste and great generosity of a distinguished collector - Henry Vaughan. It’s the perfect antidote to the darkness of an Edinburgh January.” 

Clara Govier, Head of Charities at People’s Postcode Lottery, said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome in the New Year along with the National Galleries of Scotland with Turner in January at the Scottish National Gallery. This is the sixth year that players of People’s Postcode Lottery have supported the tradition of showing Turner each January and it really is wonderful to see players’ support helping to provide thousands of visitors with the opportunity to play a part in this wonderful legacy”.

Lot 208. An extremely rare blue and turquoise 'dragon' box, Jiajing six-character mark and of the period (1522-1566); 5.5cm (10in) diam; 8cm (3.1/8in) high. Estimate £20,000 – 30,000 (€27,000 – 40,000). Sold for £25,000 (€28,177). Photo Bonhams.

The sturdily potted vessel rising from a slightly splayed foot rim, the exterior incised with three striding dragons amongst a lotus scroll, framed by scrolling cloud motifs to the foot and to the stepped band beneath the rim, the incised decoration picked out in turquoise and reserved on a deep blue ground, the interior and base covered in a plain, bluish-tinged colourless glaze. 25.5cm (10in) diam; 8cm (3.1/8in) high.

Note: The combination here of cobalt blue and turquoise is extremely rare on imperial wares. At present only two other boxes of this type, dating to the Jiajing reign, are known; the first sold by Sotheby’s Hong Kong on 4 April 2012, lot 31, and illustrated by Regina Krahl, in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1689. The second example is in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, and is illustrated by John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, no. 166.

A rare turquoise and blue ''dragon' box and cover, Mark and period of Jiajing (1522-1566); 25.7 cm., 10 1/8 in. Sold for 12,980,000 HKD at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on 4 April 2012, lot 31. Photo Sotheby's

Cf. my post: A rare turquoise and blue ''dragon' box and cover, Mark and period of Jiajing (1522-1566)

Turquoise-and-blue box and cover with dragons, Mark and period of Jiajing © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The genre actually found its source of inspiration from an earlier prototype, produced during the Chenghua period, when much experimentation with two-colour schemes was carried out. 

This palette does not however seem to have been widely used in the Chenghua reign either, as only two boxes of that period appear to have survived: one in the British Museum collection (illustrated in both Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, Jessica Harrison-Hall, London, 2001, no. 6: 17. and The World’s Great Collections, Oriental Ceramics, Vol.8, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, Bo. Gyllensvard, plate no. 237).

Turquoise-and-blue box and cover with dragons, Mark and period of Chenghua, The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum.

The other box, thought by Krahl to perhaps reside in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Ming Qing ciqi jianding [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain], Geng Baochang, Hong Kong, 1993, col. pl. 45. As noted by Regina Krahl, this colour scheme, vaguely reminiscent of the palette found on Fahua wares, seems to have occasionally been used also on dishes and bowls from the Chenghua period, remnants of which have been found in excavations of the Chenghua strata at Zhushan, Jingdezhen.

During the later Jiajing reign, bi-chromatic designs enjoyed a renewed popularity and many such wares, ordered for imperial use, are found in Museum collections worldwide. Amongst these a similar box to the present example, but with yellow and green glaze, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published by Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang gu taoci ciliao xuancui [Selection of ancient ceramic material from the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2005, vol. I, pl. 165.

C. Clunas in his Gifts and Gift-giving in Chinese art highlights how lacquer boxes of this shape were in this period used as containers for gifts, and he suggests that porcelain boxes of the same shape, such as the present lot, may have been used for the same purpose. Interestingly, from references in literary texts such as the Jing Ping Mei, he notes that, most likely, the boxes would have been returned to the original owner, containing a reciprocal gift.

Lot 37. A blue and white 'Lotus Bouquet' dish, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1425); 27.6 cm., 10 7/8 in. Estimate 1,200,000 — 1,500,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,900,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's.

the shallow rounded sides rising from a flat base and a tapered foot, well painted on the interior in deep cobalt blue with a lotus bouquet of flowers, buds, leaves and a pod tied together with arrow-head and other water plants, encircled on the cavetto with a composite flower scroll of camellia, hibiscus, pomegranate, tree peony, rose, lotus and chrysanthemum, all repeated twice except the pomegranate, all below a band of 'classic' scroll around the mouth, the exterior with a similar composite scroll of flowers  between a band of key-fret at the mouth and 'classic' scroll above the foot, the base left unglazed.

Provenance: Christie's London, 4th June 1973, lot 106.

Literature: S.T. Yeo and Jean Martin, Chinese Blue and White Ceramics, Singapore, 1978, p. 84 bottom, fig. 29.
Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 665.

Note: The lotus-bouquet motif, with its unexpected combination of lotus flowers, leaves and water weeds, tied with a ribbon and evoking strikingly coloured lotus ponds in full bloom during summer, became very popular in the Yongle period. Dishes of this small size, typically more finely painted than the larger version, are, however, comparatively rare. Of thirty-four lotus-bouquet dishes recorded from the Ardabil Shrine in Iran, only three are of this small size, two of them with wave rim borders and one probably of the present type; see John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956, pls 30 and 31, nos. 29.16, 17, and 32. Compare also a similar dish from the Greenwald collection, recently sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1st December 2010, lot 2803.

A fine and rare early Ming blue and white 'lotus bouquet' dish. Yongle period (1403-1425), from the Greenwald collection; 11 in. (28 cm.) diam. Sold for HK$2,180,000 ($281,875) at Christie's Hong Kong, 1st December 2010, lot 2803. © Christie's Images Ltd 2010

Cf. my post: Ming blue and white @ Christie's. For Imperial Appreciation: Fine Chinese Ceramics from the Greenwald Collection

Anish Kapoor, My Red Homeland 2003. Peinture à la cire et à l'huile, bras en acier et moteur. Diamètre : 12 m. Vue de l'installation au Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2003. Photo : Nic Tenwiggenhornacier. © Anish Kapoor / Adagp, Paris 2017.

SAINT-ÉTIENNE.- For its 30th anniversary, the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Saint-Étienne Métropole has invited famous British artist Anish Kapoor. Given carte blanche in the large center room of the building, he is showcasing My Red Homeland installation until Spring 2018, alongside exclusive artworks showcased for the very first time thanks to the longtime relationship of the artist and exhibition curator Lorand Hegyi, also Emeritus General Director of the museum. 

Born in Mumbai in 1954, Anish Kapoor is one of the greatest contemporary sculptor artists of our time. He has been living and working in London since 1972. In the 1980s, he proved himself on the international art scene with sculptures of a new kind, playing with forms, media and interpretations. His works require to be experienced rather than observed. 

In 1990, he was chosen to represent Great Britain at the Venice Biennale. The following year, he won the prestigious Turner Prize. Today, his works are showcased in the world’s greatest museums. He also took part in the 4th edition of the Monumenta held at the Grand Palais in 2011. 

After several stays in the area, especially in 2015 on the occasion of the Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, Anish Kapoor is now coming back with a new and original exhibition for the MAMC+. 

For the 30th anniversary exhibition of Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Etienne, the artist has created an installation that brings together a seminal sculpture with recent works that manifest a vicerally charged narrative. The directly affective, hyper-intense sensuality of these chaotic, dramatic and stricken formations hints at disconcerting, dark and perplexing metaphors for existential fears of the self-destruction of cultures and the corrosion of values. By the gigantic dimensions of universal, irrevocable downfall, the sculptural metaphors for obscure, destructive energies embody the true tragedy of existence – and thus, paradoxically, reflect the light of the sublime. 

From the beginning of his work as a sculptor, British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor has created a specific, extremely coherent, aesthetic aura that radiates, in many ways, a sort of sensitivity and spirituality that is contemporary par excellence. It could be claimed that Anish Kapoor’s enormous, complex and multifaceted oeuvre manifests the artistic philosophy of the “post-minimal” situation, with a sculptural style determined a-priori, neither by formal structural principles, nor by self-referential, tautological definitions, nor yet by puristic, reductive methods that would exclude any personal or emotional narrative. In the 1980s, the break with Minimal Art and the tradition of geometrical, structural Abstract Art signaled not only the new direction of a young generation of artists, but also a radical opening towards non-Western cultures, a globalization of the art world, and the emergence of completely new formations that constitute a symbiosis of diverse cultural contexts. 

Anish Kapoor was one of the foremost, groundbreaking makers of such new sculptures, focused on creating fragile, fluid micro-constellations and fostering processes of sensitization. Instead of defining structural relationships, this new style of sculpture emphasizes the ephemeral character of formations, and the sensual, yet also hidden spaces of material realities. Anish Kapoor’s sculptures reject all abstract formalism, and formal or compositional constraint; rather his sculptures emphasize the sensual and the poetic, their material presence holds their enigmatic and poetic power in concrete sculptural manifestation. By this, he allows the connotative realms of imagination to unfold in complete freedom, without forcing any didactic objective or directed reception on the beholder. Such openness of perception is consistent with the material and sensual variety, the inscrutability and elusiveness of the sculptural formations, making constant change, formational open-endedness and the ambiguity of the material manifestation the focus of the aesthetic experience. 

Anish Kapoor works with a diverse range of materials, so that fluidity, ephemeral openness and the elusiveness of objects as well as their spatial situations create a hyper-intense and often enigmatic world of experience, continuously destabilizing, doubting and interrogating the properties of form. The specific quality of Anish Kapoor’s oeuvre lies in how he combines introverted immersion and the almost mystical experience of the inscrutability of form, with a heightened and irresistible sensuality. 

Anish Kapoor’s recent works reveal a dramatic voice that has become ever stronger, and seems louder and more dominant than the quiet of spiritual meditation. His installations show the effects of enormous tensions, chaotic destruction and painful injury, seeming to convey certain contemporary experiences, feelings of insecurity, fear, fragility and vulnerability. Anish Kapoor creates works that operate as sites of sometimes tumultuous happenings that often take on cosmic dimensions. A fundamental friction dominates these sites in which he evokes forces that are both generative and destructive in perpetual conflict. 

Translation : Caroline Steegmann

Du 11 novembre 2017 au 08 avril 2018

Anish Kapoor, Red images in the red, 2016© Anish Kapoor / ADAGP, Paris 2017.

Anish Kapoor, vue de l'exposition "My Red Homeland". Photo : Charlotte Piérot. © Anish Kapoor. Tous droits réservés, DACS / ADAGP, Paris 2017.

Anish Kapoor, vue de l'exposition "My Red Homeland". Photo : Charlotte Piérot. © Anish Kapoor. Tous droits réservés, DACS / ADAGP, Paris 2017.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Milán, 1526-1593), Flora meretrix, c. 1590. Oil on panel, 74,5 x 57,5 cm (90.5 x 73.5 cm framed). Cassetta frame in pietre dure designed by Federico Zeri, c. 1970. Private Collection

BILBAO.- The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum is presenting the exhibition Arcimboldo. The Floras and Spring. It brings together the three works by the artist housed in Spanish collections, in addition to other paintings and documentation that help to provide a context for them. In total, the exhibition includes 14 works of which the core group comprises the oils on panel Flora (1589) and Flora meretrix (c. 1590), loaned from a private collection and first published in 2014 by Miguel Falomir, director of the Museo del Prado and author of the principal text in the present catalogue. They are joined by Spring (1563), loaned by Museum of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (Madrid), and by two contemporary copies of Autumn and Winter from the collection of the Duchess of Cardona (Córdoba, Spain), which together reveal the level of achievement of the original teste composte or "composite heads" that are so characteristic of Arcimboldo.  

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Milan, 1526-1593), Flora, 1589. Oil on board, 74.5 x 57.5 cm (90.5 x 73.5 cm with frame). Cassetta frame in pietre dure designed by Federico Zeri, c. 1970. Private Collection.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Milan, 1526-1593), Flora meretrix, c. 1590. Oil on board, 80.5 x 61 cm (95.5 x 75.5 cm with frame). Cassetta frame in pietre dure designed by Federico Zeri, c. 1970. Private Collection.

 Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Milan, 1526-1593), Spring, 1563. Oil on board, 66 x 50 cm, Museum of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Madrid.

These heads, painted with enormous technical skill and made up of flowers, small animals and other natural elements that are symbolically related to the subject of the painting, were created by this Milanese artist who worked in the service of the Habsburg. Spring was part of a series on the Seasons produced as a homage to the power of the imperial dynasty and solemnly presented to the emperor Maximilian II in 1563 together with an associated series on the Elements. The two Floras were commissioned by Rudolph II and can be related to the portrait of the Emperor as Vertumnus (1591), now in Skokloster Castle, Sweden. 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Milan, 1526-1593), Vertumnus, 1591. Oil on panel , 68 x 56 cm, Skokloster Castle, Sweden.

Displayed alongside these works are portraits of the artist's principal patrons, The Emperor Maximilian II (1550) by Anthonis Mor, loaned by the Museo del Prado, and Rudolph II, Emperor of Austria (1552-1612) (1567) and The Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553-1595) (1568) by Alonso Sánchez Coello, both from the Royal Collection Trust in London. The display in this gallery is completed with another work by Mor, this one from the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum's own collection, Portrait of Philip II (ca.1549-50), depicting the Spanish monarch whose collection included works by Arcimboldo.  

Anthonis Mor (Utrecht, 1516 - Amberes (?), 1576), Emperor Maximilian II, 1550. Oil on canvas, 184 x 100 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

Alonso Sánchez Coello (1531-88), Rudolf II, Emperor of Austria (1552-1612), Signed and dated 1567. Oil on canvas, 98.2 x 80.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/str external), RCIN 405798, Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II 2018

Alonso Sánchez Coello (1531-88), Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553-95), dated 1568. Oil on canvas, 99.0 x 81.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/str external), RCIN 405797, Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II 2018

Anthonis Mor (1520-1575), Portrait of Philip II, between 1549 and 1550, oil on panel, 107.5 x 83.3 cm, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.

This core group of works is complemented by copies of various contemporary treatises on artistic and botanical iconography which reveal Arcimboldo's expert scientific knowledge, as well as the earliest commentaries on his celebrated artistic inventions, including the one by the painter and writer Gian Paolo Lomazzo in his `Idea del tempio della pintura´ (1590).  

The exhibition is completed with five works on floral themes from the museum's own collection: The Virgin and Child with Angels and a Family of Donors by Berthomeu Baró; The Holy Family by Jan Gossaert, known as "Mabuse"; Vase of Tulips by Andries Daniels and Frans Francken the Younger ; Basket of Flowers by Juan de Arellano; and Garland of Flowers by Abraham Mignon.  

Berthomeu Baró, The Virgin and Child with Angels and a Family of Donors, c. 1470. Oil on panel, 156 x 129 cm, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.

Jan Gossart, known as "Mabuse", The Holy Family, c. 1525-1530. Oil on oak panel, 55.9 x 42 x 1.55 cm, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. 

Andries Daniels and Frans Francken the Younger, Vase of Tulips, 1620-1625. Oil on oak panel, 55,6 x 40,7 cm, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. 

Juan de Arellano (1614-1676), Basket of Flowers, 1671. Oil on canvas, 84 x 105,5 cm, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. 

Abraham Mignon, Garland of Flowers, c.1675. Oil on canvas, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was born in 1526 in Milan where he trained with his father Biaggio, who worked as a painter in the city's cathedral, and with his uncles Ambroggio and Gian Giacomo, both also painters. 

In 1549 he is first recorded as working in Milan cathedral, drawing preliminary cartoons for stained-glass windows, an activity he continued until 1557. In 1554 he became independent of his father and while continuing to be employed by the cathedral also undertook other projects, such as the gilding of the frame for Titian's painting The Crowning with Thorns for the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Two years later Arcimboldo collaborated with the painter and architect Giuseppe Meda (1534-1599) as a fresco painter in Monza cathedral. He also worked for the church of San Francesco Grande in Milan.  

In 1558 the artist produced the cartoon (on canvas) for the tapestry of The Death of the Virgin for Como cathedral, although the work was not delivered until 1561. A year later, in 1562, Arcimboldo went to work for the Imperial court in Vienna, seemingly on the invitation of the future Emperor Maximilian II. He painted the series of the Four Seasons in 1563.  

The first documented references to the artist's activities for the Imperial court as a painter of portraits and other works of an unspecified type date from 1565. On New Year's Day 1569 Arcimboldo presented the Emperor with his series of the Four Seasons (painted in 1566), accompanied by a panegyric by the poet Giambattista Fonteo.  

Between 1570 and 1580 Arcimboldo is documented as a designer of events, receptions, jousts, theatrical performances and other activities held at the Habsburg court. Between 1571 and 1576 he painted his self-portrait in watercolour, now in the National Gallery, Prague. 

In 1580 Arcimboldo was made Count Palatine by Rudolph II and the following year he returned to Milan for the third time where he made his friend Giovanni Filippo Gherardini the beneficiary of his possessions in the case that he should die before his son Benedetto (born in 1575) reached his majority. In 1585 the artist presented Rudolph II with a folder of 158 drawings comprising designs for costumes, fountains and sledges. Two years later he decided to return permanently to Milan where he remained until his death. In recognition of his many years of service to the Habsburgs, Rudolph granted the artist a special payment of 1,500 florins. 

It was in 1589 that Arcimboldo decided to paint Flora, which he gave to Rudolph II on New Year's Day 1590. A year later he portrayed the Emperor as the god Vertumnus, a work that became the pair to Flora.  

Giuseppe Arcimboldo died in 1593 in his house in Milan.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Milan, 1526-1593), Self-portrait, 1571-76. Watercolor on paper, 23 x 15,7 cm, Národní galerie, Prague.

Lot 360. A pair of doucai 'floral bouquet' bowls, Yongzheng six-character marks in underglaze-blue within double circles and of the period(1723-1735); 6 in. (15.3 cm.) diam. Estimate GBP 30,000 - GBP 50,000. Price realised GBP 158,500. © Christie’s Images Limited 2015.

Each bowl is delicately painted and enamelled in soft tones around the exterior with six bouquets of daisies in shades of blue, yellow and iron-red, divided by foliate arabesques emerging from the base and from below a blue and yellow ruyi band around the rim. The interior medallion is decorated with a central bouquet encircled by florettes and further arabesques, all within double-line borders. 

Provenance: From a private European collection, predominantly assembled in the 1970s and 1980s.

Note: A number of similarly decorated bowls have been sold at auction, including a pair from the Edward T. Chow collection, sold in Christies Hong Kong, 25 November 1980, lot 128. Compare also this doucaidecoration on larger vessels from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Wucai, Doucai: Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, 1999, pl. 224, a garlic-head globular vase, and pl. 225, a meiping. Also a very similar pair of bowls with this design and from the same period were sold in Christies Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3460.

A fine pair of doucai'floral bouquet' bowls, Yongzheng six-character marks within double circles and of the period(1723-1735); 6 in. (15.2 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 1,200,000 - HKD 2,000,000. Sold for HKD 5,440,000 Christies Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3460. © Christie’s Images Limited 2014.

Each bowl is delicately painted and enamelled in soft tones around the exterior with six bouquets of daisies in shaded hues of blue, yellow and iron-red, divided by foliate arabesques emerging from the base and from below a blue and yellow ruyi band around the rim, the interior medallion decorated with a central bouquet encircled by florettes and further arabesques, all within double-line borders, box (2).

Provenance: Acquired from S Marchant and Son, London, circa early 1980s

CHRISTIE'S. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS & WORKS OF ART, 10 November 2015, London, King Street 

Lot 65. A very rare and finely enamelled famille rose glass snuff bottle, Imperial, Palace Workshops, Beijing, Qianlong four-character mark in blue enamel and of the period (1736-1795); 2 1/8 in. (5.5 cm.) high. Estimate GBP 20,000 - GBP 30,000. Price realised GBP 80,500. © Christie’s Images Limited 2015.

The semi-translucent white glass snuff bottle is finely decorated to the compressed pear shaped body with a continuous design depicting camellia and wintersweet, below a band of pink floral scroll and a ruyi-lappet border encircling the neck. The base is enamelled with a furtherruyi border, with the recessed foot inscribed in blue enamel in kaishuwith the characters Qianlong nian zhi. The gilt-bronze stopper is chased with a stylised floral design, stopper. 

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5 May 1994, lot 1324.
The K.H. Yeo Collection of Chinese Enamelled Glass Wares.
The collection of an important private Asian collector. 

Literature:  The Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Hong Kong, Autumn 2012, vol. XLIV (2), front cover.
Yeo. K.H., The Master Enameller, Hong Kong, 2014, pp. 46-49, no. 4.

Note: This exquisite bottle is part of a known group of enamelled glass bottles bearing the same design of camellia and wintersweet. One almost identical example is in the Palace Museum in Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 47 - Snuff Bottles, Hong Kong, 2003, p. 4, no. 3.

Lot 66. A very rare and finely enamelled glass 'quails' snuff bottle, Imperial, Palace Workshops, Beijing, Qianlong four-character mark in blue enamel and of the period (1736-1795); 1 ¾ in. (4.5 cm.) high. Estimate GBP 30,000 - GBP 50,000. Price realised GBP 50,000. © Christie’s Images Limited 2015.

The exterior of the bottle is exquisitely decorated with a continuous scene depicting five quails amidst colourful leafy sprays of peony and millet, below a blue ruyi border to the shoulder and a band of ruby scrolls encircling the neck. The bottle is supported on a short ring foot. The gilt-metal stopper is decorated with a stylised dragon design, stopper. 

Provenance: Acquired from the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, Portland, Oregon, on 16 October 2012.
With Robert Kleiner, London.
From the collection of Margaret Kaufman.
The collection of an important private Asian collector.

Brush pot, mark and reign of Yongzheng (1723-1735), porcelain. Height: 14 cm. Julia C. Gulland Gift, 682-1907 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2017. 

Brush pot of porcelain, painted inside in colours to imitate the appearance of wood, and on the outside with a figure of a Daoist Immortal Zheng Kuo Lao riding on a white mule by the shore of a lake with mountains in the distance, followed by a youth carrying a burden. Mark of Yongzheng in blue.