Lot 101. A fine and rare pair of grisaille-decorated 'landscape' bowls, marks and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 14.2 cm., 5 5/8  in. Estimate 2,000,000 — 3,000,000 HKD). Lot sold 3,800,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's 2015.

each finely potted with deep rounded sides rising from a short foot to a slightly everted rim, finely decorated in a painterly manner with tranquil landscape scenes, one depicting a scholar standing on a peak overlooking a lake towards a fishing boat, the other with a house set in a snowy landscape, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark in three columns.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 31st October 1974, lot 302.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29th November 1978, lot 344.
Collection of T.Y. Chao.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19th May 1987, lot 321.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5th November 1996, lot 920.

Exhibited: Splendour of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1992, cat. no. 200.

Cai Hebi, in her introduction to the Special Exhibition of Ch'ing Dynasty Enamelled Porcelains of the Imperial Ateliers, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1992, p. 12, quotes an edict from 1732 in which the emperor praises the making of sepia wares and says, 'For Grand Minister Hai Wang to transmit the following edict: The enamel paintings in sepia are all exceedingly fine. Employ the two painters Tai Heng and T'ang Chen-chi as enamel painters and remove the paintings brought as samples of their works. Also remove the sample paintings by T'ang Tai. The work of the others is all fine, and they may remain. By Imperial Command. Have the painters Tai and T'ang transferred to enamel painting.'  

Daimyo — Seigneurs de la guerre au Japon au Musée Guimet.

Lot 104. An extremely rare crystal inkstone, Incised seal mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 11.9 cm., 4 5/8  in. Estimate 500,000 — 700,000 HKD). Lot sold 1,375,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's 2015.

the transparent quartz with characteristic flaws and inclusions, intricately carved in relief with an oval section centred on a frosted circular patch, below a slightly sloped recessed inkwell near the top, all within a border carved in the form of a bat with outstretched wings stylistically enveloping the inkstone, the underside incised with a vertical four-character seal.

Note: Yongzheng reign-marked inkstones carved from Songhua stone from the Qing court collection are preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and a number has appeared at auction, but examples in rock-crystal are extremely rare. The conception of this outstanding inkstone, in which the stylised form of the bat stretches around the edge of the inkwell, and where the lobes of the well comprise the natural folds of the mammal’s outstretched wings, is designed to depict the bat as if drinking from the well of the inkstone. Similar stylistic treatment can be seen on a Yongzheng reign-marked Songhua inkstone  of double-gourd form in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in A Special Exhibition of Sunghua Inkstone Comparable to the Best Tuan and She Inkstones, Taipei, 1993, pl. 33. The definition and positioning of the bat on the Songhua inkstone closely matches that on the current inkstone, though the overall form is different and the seal mark is enclosed within a square.

Another Songhua inkstone in the National Palace Museum, of double-gourd form but carved with melon and vine at the top, shares the same treatment of the mark as on the current crystal inkstone, a four-character seal mark intricately incised on the underside, illustrated ibid, pl. 34. Compare also the mark on a Yongzheng inkstone, preserved in a lacquer box incised and dated to the second year of the Yongzheng reign, illustrated in 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. 104, and sold in these rooms, 8th April 2014, lot 49.  

Before the annexation of Xinjiang in 1759, dramatically increasing the supply of high quality flawless crystal, the material was especially prized at the Imperial court. An envoy of the Pope is recorded as having been given a gift of a rare rock-crystal snuff bottle by the Kangxi emperor. As outlined in Tributes from Guangdong to the Emperor, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 58, Qu Dajun in Guangdong Xinyu, Vol. 15, Commodities, Crystal, 39th year of Kangxi, 1700, eulogises the limited supply of crystal from Wuzhishan in Qiongzhou as ‘brilliant, lustrous and white as snow’.

Sotheby's. Yongzheng – The Age of Harmony and Integrity, Hong Kong, 07 avr. 2015

Lot 172. A fine silver circular box and cover, Tang dynasty (618-907). Diameter 1 3/4  in., 4.5 cm. Estimate 6,000 — 8,000 USD. Lot sold 25,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's 2014

engraved on both sides with an eight-petal flower-head at the center, encircled by eight arrangements of scrolling vine, the straight narrow sides with detached florets, all on a densely ring-matted ground.

Provenance: Old Japanese collection, circa 1980.

NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s unveiled its Asia Week New York schedule of auctions and selling exhibitions. Beginning over three thousand years ago in the Shang Dynasty in China and continuing through to the 20th century in India, the 1,300+ lots of Chinese Works of Art, Classical Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art, and Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art, demonstrate the depth and diversity of the Asian Art field. Following a selection of highlight exhibitions around the world, public exhibitions in New York City open on 15 March, with auctions beginning 19 March. 

Christina Prescott-Walker, Senior Vice President & Division Director of Asian Art, noted: “Every season the world descends upon New York for Asia Week New York, and this season will be no exception as we host our largest sale series in a decade. We look forward to welcoming the crowds into our York Avenue headquarters where all 10 floors of our building will be filled with Asian Art – for a celebration worthy of the creative vision and history of China, India, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas and beyond.” 

MODERN & CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIAN ART 
Auction: 19 March 2018, 11am 
Asia Week New York begins at Sotheby’s with Monday’s auction of Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art. Following in the footsteps of last year’s auction, which featured significant prices for Raja Ravi Varma and Maqbool Fida Husain, the 2018 edition is led by Syed Haider Raza’s Village Provençal (estimate upon request). Painted in 1956, the work was shown later that year at the Venice Biennale, only the second year India participated in the international fair. Evocative of the works of Post-Impressionist artists including Paul Cézanne and Vincent Van Gogh, two artists who greatly influenced Raza’s practice, the 41-by-78 inch landscape beautifully represents the crossroads of India and France where Raza flourished. 

Syed Haider Raza, Village Provençal, 1956. Estimate upon request. Courtesy Sotheby’s.

MING: LUMINOUS DAWN OF EMPIRE 
Auction: 20 March 2018, 10am 
The Chinese Works of Art department will present the second iteration of Ming with a dozen works of art from the height of the Ming Dynasty. Shining a spotlight on the exquisite style and craftsmanship of the Chinese court in the 15th century, this year’s auction is highlighted by an Exceptionally Rare ‘Wintergreen’ Glazed Jar and Cover from the Yongle Period, considered to be the most important period for Chinese porcelain production due to its quantity, quality and innovation (estimate $1.5/2 million). The present work epitomizes the era’s achievements with its unusual shape and luminescent glaze; the jar, complete with its cover, is a rare find while its ‘wintergreen’ glaze is indicative of the technical skill of the early Ming craftsman.

JINGYATANG: TREASURES OF CHINESE BUDDHIST SCULPTURE 
Auction: 20 March 2018, 10:30am 
Immediately following the curated selection of Ming ceramics and works of art, Sotheby’s will present four masterpieces of Chinese Buddhist sculpture from esteemed Asian private collection, Jingyatang. Ranging in date from the Northern Wei to the Sui Dynasty, the stone sculptures are a testament to the skills of Chinese artisans. A Grey Schist Relief Carving of an Apsara, Northern Wei Dynasty, is a major highlight of the sale. Formerly in the collection of renowned dealer J.T. Tai, the 22 1/2 inch sculpture was last offered at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in April 1997. Since then, it has been exhibited at the National History Museum, Taipei and the Kaohsiung Municipal Art Museum, Kaohsiung. An unmistakably museum-quality piece included in the 2016 publication, The Treasures of Chinese Buddhist Sculptures, the sculpture carries an estimate of $1.2/1.5 million. 

An Exceptional and Rare Limestone Relief Carving Of An Apsara, Northern Wei Dynasty. Height 23 1/8 in., 58.7 cm. Estimate $1.2/1.5 million. Courtesy Sotheby’s

KANGXI: THE JIE RUI TANG COLLECTION 
Auction: 20 March 2018, 11am 
Dedicated auctions of Chinese Works of Art continue with KANGXI: The Jie Rui Tang Collection. Personally selected by collector Jeff P. Stamen, the approximately 90 pieces emphasize quality and rarity. The sale is led by a Large Famille-Verte Rouleau Vase (estimate $400/600,000). Measuring 29 3/4 inches in height, this Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period work of art is exemplary for its wucai design. Depicting a lively scene from the Feng Shen Bang (Investiture of the Gods), the greens, iron-red, yellows, aubergines and blues are emphasized by striking black outlines, which are notoriously difficult to achieve. Previously held in the collection of the St Louis Art Museum since 1913, the work was last offered at auction in 2005 and is comparable to a work in the collection of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.  

INSPIRED: CHINESE ART FROM THE COLLECTION OF GERSON AND JUDITH LEIBER 
Auction: 20 March 2018, 2pm 
The artistic vision of celebrated handbag designer Judith Leiber and her artistic husband Gerson are encapsulated in this dedicated auction of Chinese art titled Inspired. Thoughtfully and lovingly collected over the course of seven decades, the collection features pieces purchased by the couple from major American and European galleries including Ralph M. Chait. An Impressive and Large Pair of Famille-Rose ‘Soldier’ Vases and Covers from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty is particularly striking (estimate $250/400,000). Notable for their size, these 52 ¼ inch baluster vases are also significant for their design and provenance. Enameled with pheasants, exotically emphasized by their vibrant and long flowing feathers, these large vases were formerly in the celebrated Fonthill Collection, collected by Alfred Morrison. 

An impressive and large pair of famille-rose Fonthill ‘soldier’ vases and covers, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period, circa 1740. Estimate $250,000–400,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 
Auction: 21 March 2018, 10am & 2pm 
Chinese Works of Art continues on Wednesday morning and afternoon with nearly 230 lots of ceramics, sculpture, textiles and jades. Highlighted by property from distinguished private collections, the sale is led by an Extremely Rare and Important Bronze Ritual Wine Vessel and Cover (You) (estimate $1.5/2.5 million). From the Shang Dynasty, this 1,500-year-old masterpiece of magnificent presence and patina is a testament to skills of its artisans as well as the care of its previous owners. Previously published in Beijing in the 1930s, the work was offered once before on 30 March 1978 in our London salesroom. 

An extremely rare and important bronze ritual wine vessel and cover (you), Shang dynasty. Estimate $1,500,000–2,500,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s 

The seasonal sale of Chinese Works of Art also features a Rare Pair of Famile-Verte ‘Western Chamber’ Cups, Kangxi Marks and Period from the Cook Family Collection, a group of Ming and Qing dynasty porcelain purchased primary from respected dealer John Sparks in the 1950s and 60s (estimate $100/150,000). Finely potted in a beaker form, this exceptional pair is flawlessly enameled with a scene from the play Xixiangji/Romance of the Western Chamber. On the first, the central figure of Huiming is illustrated running alongside General Du, in pursuit of the fleeing rebel Sun Feihu, while on the second, scholar Zhang Sheng, Yingying and her attendant Hongnian bid adieu to Huiman as he rushes off to battle. Cups of similar form can be found in distinguished institutional collections including the Palace Museum, Beijing, the Shanghai Museum, and the British Museum, London. 

THE RICHARD R. & MAGDALENA ERNST COLLECTION OF HIMALAYAN ART 
Auction: 22 March 2018, 10am 
Sotheby’s Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Department announced the sale of the Richard R. & Magdalena Ernst collection. Spanning six centuries of Himalayan Art – from the 13th through 19th centuries – this unrivaled collection captures the aesthetic beauty of the region in rare and superb religious paintings. The undisputable highlight of this dedicated auction is a Thangka Depicting An Early Buddhist Master from circa 1200 or 13th century Tibet. Measuring 36 5/8 by 28 3/8 inches, this portrait painting is one of the largest and earliest examples known, and is remarkable for its condition, color and quality. Formerly exhibited at The Art Institute of Chicago and The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and appearing in numerous publications, the work carries an estimate of $800/1,200,000 

A Thangka Depicting An Early Buddhist Master, Tibet, 13th century. Estimate upon request. Courtesy Sotheby’s. 

INDIAN, HIMALAYAN AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN WORKS OF ART 
Auction: 22 March 2018, 2pm 
The afternoon session of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art shines a light on Buddhist, Hindu and Jain ritual, devotional and decorative art. Amongst the offerings is a stunning selection of Himalayan bronzes from the Collection of Edwin and Cherie Silver. A Fine Gilt-Bronze Figure Depicting Nairatmya pays tribute to the refined tastes of the Silvers (estimate $80/120,000). Measuring 10 5/8 inches in height, this circa 14th century Tibetan sculpture depicts the consort of Hevajra, one of the principal meditational deities of the Sakya order of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. 

Property from the Collection of Edwin and Cherie Silver. A Fine Gilt-Bronze Figure Depicting Nairatmya, Tibet, circa 14th century. Gilt copper alloy, silver, polychrome and gems. Height 10 5/8 inches. Estimate $80,000-120,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s.

A Magnificent and Monumental Grey Schist Figure of Standing Buddha from the ancient region of Gandhara is another highlight of the auction. Dating from the Kushan Period, 2nd/3rd century, this important sculpture is an artistic amalgamation of the region’s Greek, Roman, Scythian and Iranian traditions. With its beautifully carved yet monumental proportions, the powerful sculpture returns to Sotheby’s after fourteen years with a pre-sale estimate of $1/1.5 million.  

THE CHEW FAMILY COLLECTION OF CHINESE PAINTINGS AND CALLIGRAPHY 
Auction: 22 March 2018, 5pm 
In the 1970s, Ms. Frances Chew and her parents Thomas and Joan Chew began assembling a collection of classical Chinese paintings and calligraphy in their hometown of Carmel, California. The result, being auctioned at Sotheby’s on 22 March in a dedicated evening sale, is a fantastic selection of nearly 80 paintings and calligraphy by both classical and acclaimed modern masters. Water and Sky Gazing After Rain in Splashed Color headlines the offerings. Painted by Zhang Daqian, one of the foremost modern ink painters and a friend of the Chews, the radiant horizontal scroll cleverly straddles the line between reality and abstraction (estimate $1.2/1.8 million).

Zhang Daqian, Water and Sky Gazing After Rain in Splashed Color. Estimate $1,200,000-1,800,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s.

FINE CLASSICAL CHINESE PAINTINGS & CALLIGRAPHY 
Auction: 23 March 2018, 10am and 2pm 
This March, Fine Classical Chinese Paintings & Calligraphy will feature approximately 240 works by some of the most celebrated artists in the field. Wen Zhengming, Wang Hui, Wang Yuanqi and You Shouping are represented in Chinese Paintings & Calligraphy from the Collection of Joe and Hellen Darion, led by Wen Zhengming’s Ode to the Red Cliff (estimate $380/580,000). Carrying three seals of the artist, this serene landscape and beautiful calligraphy, executed when the artist was at the age of 87, also bears a number of collectors’ seals including those of Kong Guangtao (1832-90), He Kunyu (1828-96), Wango Weng (born 1918) and the present owners. Previously exhibited at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor and Asia House Gallery, New York City, this handscroll is an outstanding work by one of the leading artists of the Ming Dynasty.  

The sale also includes Wen Peng’s Poems in Cursive Script, an elegant handscroll measuring 215 5/8 inches in length. Signed Sanqiaofu Peng and dated 1560, the 16th century ink on paper also features three seals of the artist alongside colophons by Xiang Hanping (1890-1978) and Wang Yunzhong (1873-1918). Last offered at auction in June 1987, the work now carries a pre-sale estimate of $120/180,000. 

Wen Peng, Poems in Cursive Script, ink on paper. Signed Sanqiaofu Peng and dated 1560; with three seals of the artist alongside colophons by Xiang Hanping (1890-1978) and Wang Yunzhong (1873-1918). Estimate $120,000-180,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s.

The Wellington and Juliana Koo Collection offers another opportunity to acquire Chinese paintings and calligraphy that have not been available for decades. Cultivated over the course of 40+ years, during Dr. Koo’s tenure as one of China’s most distinguished diplomats, the collection features Su Shi Poems in Running Script by Zeng Guofan (estimate $60/80,000). A framed set of six, this group of calligraphy was a gift from the artist to Li Hanzhang, the elder brother of Li Hongzhang who became Prime Minister. Chinese Paintings & Calligraphy from the Collection of Professor Chu-tsing Li is also of note this season. Comprised of nearly 50 works including paintings by Zhao Shao’ang and Xie Zhiliu, the collection illustrates the collector’s academic background as a Distinguished Professor of Art History at the University of Kansas and passion for the field, as he pioneered the study of this field in North America.  

SATURDAY AT SOTHEBY’S: ASIAN ART 
Auction: 24 March 2018, 10am 
Asia Week New York concludes this March with Saturday at Sotheby’s. Encompassing nearly 400 lots beginning in the Warring States and continuing through to the Republic period, the porcelain, textiles, sculptures, furniture and paintings illustrate the abundance of creativity from East, South and Southeast Asia. A Blue and White Stemcup with Lança Characters, bearing a Qianlong seal mark and of the period, leads the ceramic offerings this season with an estimate of $15/25,000, while a ‘Huanghuali’ Ming-Style Recessed-Leg Table-Form Stand from the Qing Dynasty, 18th/19th Century, is the top furniture lot this March. Designed with a two-panel top with a rectangular, molded-edge frame, supported by four elegantly carved legs, it carries a pre-sale estimate of $15/25,000. 

THE GREAT WITHIN: PHOTOGRAPHS OF INDIA AND THE BRITISH RAJ IN THE 19TH CENTURY 
Selling Exhibition: 14-29 March 2018 
Collected and curated by Clark Worswick, the founding curator of photography at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, The Great Within is a selling exhibition of 19th century photography. Seen through the eyes of renowned artists of their time – including Colin Murray, Felice Beato, Raja Deen Dayal and Bourne and Shepherd – the images document the people and the landscape of the British Raj. The works being offered in this selling exhibition are reprints from originals collected by Mr. Worswick, in state-of-the-art carbon inks, which will last nearly 400 years, extending the lifetime of these works of art as well as their historical significance. 

Colin Murray, Bourne & Shepherd & Co., Calcutta/ Clark Worswick, Palace on the Lake, Udaipur #2277, 1872/Atelier Worswick, 2017.  

LUIS CHAN: THE WORLD COMES TO HIM 
Selling Exhibition: 15-28 March 2018 
Sotheby’s will present a retrospective of Luis Chan this Asia Week New York. Born in Panama in 1905, Luis Chan adopted Hong Kong as his home in 1910 where he established himself as a painter, teacher, writer, curator and cultural advocate. Travelling around the world virtually via international art publications, he picked up artistic cues from the Surrealists, Abstractionists and Impressionists, all of which are represented in his exhibition. On view from 15-28 March, the artistic strength and joie-de-vivre of Luis Chan comes to life at Sotheby’s this Asia Week 2018.

Covered jar, Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 9), 2nd–1st century B.C. Earthenware with painted decoration. H. 18 in. (45.7 cm); Diam. 11 in. 27.9 cm); Diam. of rim 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm); Diam. of foot 8 1/2 in. (21.6 cm). Charlotte C. and John C. Weber Collection, Gift of Charlotte C. and John C. Weber, 1992. 1992.165.20a, b© 2000–2018 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This mortuary vessel is decorated with the animated drama of a blue beast with bared fangs lunging at a mounted archer. Roaming the other side of the hu is a long striding tiger. Executed with brilliant pigments and confident black brushstrokes, the decoration perfectly expresses the boldly assertive character of the Western Han dynasty and is, moreover, one of the finest known examples of Han painting. The iconography is celestial: the blue beast represents the star Sirius, known in China as the Heavenly Wolf, and the archer is a personification of the adjoining constellation, Bow, whose arrow always points directly at the Wolf. Their companion on the other side is the White Tiger, cosmological symbol of the West, whose domain in the nightly sky borders that of the Wolf and the Bow.

The Wolf is a baleful star. He governs thievery and looting and represents the Xiongnu tribes (Huns) who warred with the Han people on the northwestern borders of China. It is said that when the twinklings of the Wolf star change color, banditry will curse the land; when the star shifts from its normal position, the Xiongnu will be on the warpath. Fortunately, there is the vigilant Bow, who "punishes rebels and knows those who are crafty and evil." Forever pointed at the Wolf, across whose body is an array of ill-boding meteors, the Bow was considered the protector of China. The mounted archer, the eternal image of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppe, is shown hunting the symbolic representation of the Xiongnu.

Lot 1264. A rare blue and white 'Deer and Crane' vase, Jiaqing six-character seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1796-1820); 12 ½ in. (31.7 cm.) high. Estimate USD 50,000 - USD 80,000. Price realised USD 732,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The elegantly shaped vase is decorated on each side of the body with a deer grasping a sprig of lingzhi in its mouth and standing below a tree, with a crane perched towards the top and two bats in flight to one side, all between borders of ruyi heads above and petal lappets below. The slightly tapered neck is decorated with bats and lotus blossoms, flanked by a pair of angular scroll handles beneath the slightly everted rim.

Provenance: Collection of Chin Hai Wang, acquired in Taiwan before 1964, and thence by descent within the family.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York

Lot 1110. A very rare and important sancai-glazed pottery figure of a female polo player, Tang dynasty (AD 618-907); 13 ¾ in. (35 cm.) long. Estimate USD 300,000 - USD 500,000. Price realised USD 372,500.© Christie's Images Ltd 2017

 The rider, with hair dressed in a double topknot, wears a long tunic worn off the right shoulder to free the rider's raised right arm while swinging the mallet, with the body bent slightly to the side and the head positioned to follow the ball. The horse is shown in full gallop with head pulled to the left and mouth open, and is glazed in chestnut with a green saddle and touches of white glaze on the hooves, forelocks, mane, face and tail. 

Provenance: The Property of Lady Mitchell; Sotheby's London, 8 December 1964, lot 9.
The Property of a Gentleman; Sotheby's London, 6th April 1976, lot 41.
The British Rail Pension Fund; Sotheby's London, 12th December 1989, lot 59.
Gerbe Collection, Switzerland.

Literature: Christian Deydier/Oriental Bronzes Ltd., Twentieth Anniversary, Paris, 2000, no. 14.

Exhibited: London, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1977-1985.
Dallas, The Dallas Museum of Art, 1985-1988.
Paris, Christian Deydier/Oriental Bronzes Ltd., Twentieth Anniversary, September-November 2000.

Power and Agility – A Tang dynasty sancai polo player
Rosemary Scott
Senior International Academic Consultant, Asian Art

Amongst the most dynamic ceramic sculptures ever produced in China are those from the Tang dynasty, which, like the current example, depict polo players riding at full gallop and stretching out from the saddle to swing their mallets. The powerful sense of movement of the horse and the athletic balance of the rider are perfectly captured by the ceramic artist. The horse’s legs are extended front and back, in a movement known as ventre à terre, which emphasizes the impression of speed, while the rider twists from the waist with arm raised to strike the ball. 

The horse has long made a significant contribution to life in China and to the present day remains an important part of the lives of those inhabiting China’s northern steppes. It is thought that the domestication of the horse in China began in the Neolithic period, and it is from this time that the earliest artistic representations of horses have been found. Horses are shown in considerable variety and number among cave paintings dating to both the Neolithic and the Bronze Age from Inner Mongolia and Gansu province, while stone carvings showing life-like horses have been found at Bronze Age sites at Bayan Urad, Dengkou County, Inner Mongolia. At the same site a carving showing a man riding a horse has been found (illustrated by University Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong in Heavenly Horses, Hermès, Hong Kong, 1997, nos. 4-6). 

From this time onward there developed a spiritual and artistic fascination with horses in China. Horses were valued, not only as animals which could be ridden, but as dray animals and, perhaps most importantly, as creatures of war. The use of horses to draw war chariots and as steeds for cavalry proved crucial in China’s internal and external conflicts. The Chinese belief in the afterlife and the concern with providing the deceased with those items essential for his or her well-being in the world after death has ensured that abundant evidence has been preserved attesting to the importance of the horse in ancient China.  

The royal tombs of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1100 BC) at Xibeigang include burials of real horses, chariots and charioteers, all of whom were interred with their masters in order to serve them in the afterlife. This gruesome practice was replaced in later periods by the interment of models in clay, wood or bronze. The most famous excavation of such models is undoubtedly the huge ceramic army made to accompany the First Emperor of China (Qin Shihuang) to the grave in the third century BC. This army, found in Lintong County near Xi’an in Shaanxi province, included life-size soldiers and horses, all carefully modelled and painted. The First Emperor was also provided with bronze chariots. Although these are only three-quarter size, the imperial chariots, horses and charioteers are masterpieces of the metalworker’s craft, showing every tiny detail including that of the harnesses (see Li Xixing (ed.), The Shaanxi Bronzes, Shaanxi People’s Fine Arts Publishing House, Xi’an, 1994, pp. 330-2). 

During the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), the famed Ferghana horses were introduced into central China from the West. These revered horses were known for their speed, power and stamina, and were sometimes referred to as ‘blood-sweating’ horses, or ‘thousand li horses’, after the belief that they were able to cover a thousand li in a single day. These Ferghana horses were crossed with other breeds, such as the Mongolian-type horses of China’s northern regions. In the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907) horses were regarded as essential to military capability and the defence of the realm, and their breeding was considered of national importance. At the beginning of the Tang dynasty China’s horse population was at a very low level but through an elaborate system of stud farms the number of horses was raised from 5,000 to 706,000 during the first fifty years of the dynasty. The stud farms were established in Gansu, Shanxi and Shaanxi, each ideally with 50,000 horses, which were assigned to herds of 120 animals. The horses were also carefully crossed with various breeds from different parts of central Asia in order to achieve the perfect blend of strength and agility. It is also significant that in AD 703 the Tang court received several fine Arab horses. Virginia Bowers has noted that: “The most prized mounts for battle, hunting, and polo were quite large, perhaps sixteen hands. They had a heavier frame than today’s thoroughbreds yet their thin legs, agility, and lively manner made them different from present-day draft horses. A contemporary polo player was amazed that the ‘heavy’ horses depicted in the mural in Crown Prince Zhanghuai’s tomb could be so nimble. These Tang horses ... have the same heavy body and ‘Roman’ nose – quite different from today’s classic Arabian horses – as the horses ridden by the Sasamans, and many authorities speculate that they were all descendants of the famous ‘imperial’ Nisean breed of Achaemenid Persia, as pictured at Persepolis.” (Virginia Bower, ‘Polo in Tang China – Sport and Art’, Asian Art, Winter 1991, pp. 27, 32.)

The horse depicted in the current ceramic sculpture therefore represents the results of a carefully managed imperial breeding programme.

The Han and Tang periods were both characterized by major artistic achievements and among the visual arts of both periods, depictions of horses provide some of the finest examples. During the Han dynasty large unglazed pottery horses were made in the south west of China in Sichuan province. Smaller wooden or ceramic horses were often painted with cold pigments, while bronze horses, such as the so-called ‘flying horse’ found in 1969 near the city of Wuwei in Gansu province, brought horse sculpture to a new level. However, the most universally admired ceramic horses are those, like the current example, which were made for the tombs of the Tang dynasty elite. These horses, representing wealth and power, played a significant part in emphasising the importance of the occupant of the tomb. These were not just war horses or horses used for transport, but were also horses ridden for leisure pursuits – most importantly hunting and polo. The ceramic horses of the Tang dynasty were either decorated with sancai (three-colour) glazes or were unglazed and cold-painted. Both techniques were extremely successful, but the sancai glazes, seen on the current figure, produced brilliant, lasting colours, emphasizing the horses’ powerful bodies. The horses depicted, as noted above, combine power and agility - qualities which are brought out by the ceramic artist.  

Although a 3rd century AD poem by the Chinese poet Cao Zhi (曹植AD 192–232) mentions hitting a ball on horseback, and a mural in the circa AD 584 tomb of Xu Minxing in Shandong province depicts a man mounting a horse while holding what appears to be polo sticks, the first clear written evidence of polo in China dates to the Tang dynasty, when the game was referred to as jiqiu (擊球 strike ball). Today the game is more usually referred to as maqiu (馬球 horse ball) or damaqiu (打馬球strike horse ball). Polo was a particularly popular activity at the Tang court and was played by both men and women. The rider on the current horse is female. Polo was specifically encouraged by two Tang emperors, Taizong (r. AD 626-649) and Xuanzong (r. AD 712-56). It was not only seen as an exciting game, but as being excellent for the development of certain useful skills, which, in the case of the young men of the court, could be applied to military activities. It is significant that a spirited polo match, involving more than 20 horsemen, is depicted in a mural on one side of the entrance tunnel to the tomb of Li Xian Crown Prince Zhanghuai, dated circa AD 706 (see The Silk Road- Treasures of Tang China, The Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1991, p. 74). (Fig 1) Zhanghuai was ordered to commit suicide by his mother Empress Wu Zetian in AD 684, but after his brother Zhongzong came to the throne in AD 705, Zhanghuai was reinterred at the Qianling Mausoleum northwest of the capital Xi’an in AD 706 with full honours. The mural in his tomb shows the players using stirrups, which is not always the case for Tang equestrians, but which can clearly be seen on the current ceramic figure. More significantly, the mural’s appearance in this royal tomb is indicative of the importance of polo at the Tang court of the early 8th century.  

Polo was even the subject of poetry in the Tang dynasty, and such a poem by the literatus Han Yu (韓愈 AD 768-824), is entitled Poem to Commander Zhang at the meeting of the Bian and Si Rivers. The poem describes a smooth polo field, one thousand steps in length, with low walls on three sides, and refers to the ball as ‘the divine bead’. In the poem, the game takes place before sunrise on a cold autumn morning, and drums are sounded when the red flags are raised to signal the beginning of the match. The poem goes on to describe the fierce contest between the players and the excitement of the onlookers. It ends by pointing out that this is not a game for fun, but is military training, and finally notes the scarcity of loyal officers and suggests that they are kept for fighting real enemies. However, even scholars played polo in the Tang dynasty and in the latter years of the dynasty it was customary for the successful candidates in the national civil service examinations to host a polo tournament in celebration. Records indicate that in AD 877 a team of scholars even beat a military team, to the chagrin of the latter.  

It is reported in several texts that during the reign of Zhongzong (r. AD 705-10), on the occasion of a marriage between a Chinese princess and a Tibetan king in AD 709, the Tibetans challenged the Chinese to a game of polo in the palace grounds. The emperor took up the challenge and a four-man Chinese royal team, comprising one of his nephews, who was to be the future Emperor Xuanzong (r. AD 712-56), two of the emperor’s sons and another nephew, defeated the ten-man Tibetan team. Indeed, historical texts praise the skill of the future Emperor Xuanzong. 

As mentioned above, the polo player in the current ceramic sculpture is female, and it is noteworthy that in the Tang dynasty women enjoyed much greater freedom than they would in later dynasties. Nevertheless, as in the Han dynasty, the riding of horses during the Tang dynasty was restricted by an imperial edict of AD 667 to military personnel and court officials. In the early Tang period, women generally travelled in small carriages pulled by oxen, but by the middle of the dynasty they also rode horses – riding astride, wearing western-style clothing with fitted jacket, accompanied by a wide-brimmed hat with a veil. This head-gear was, unsurprisingly, discarded when they played polo, and was generally omitted from their outfits later in the dynasty. Indeed, when playing polo, the dress of women was essentially similar to that of men. 

Women from among the Tang elite must have played polo on a regular basis, and are depicted not only in ceramic sculptures, but also on bronze mirrors of the period, where their long, hooked polo sticks can clearly be seen. As the sticks of ceramic figures would have been made of wood, they have not survived on the majority of ceramic sculptures. Female polo players were praised by the Tang poet Wang Jian (王建 c. AD 767–830). Wang particularly noted their skill in executing backhand shots, which is what the female rider in the current piece appears to be doing. While it is not certain, records appear to suggest that in the Tang dynasty male and female players did not play on the same team. In fact, it seems that court ladies only played with the emperor, relatives, and certain other approved male members of the court. However, it is probable that some mixed games would have taken place.  

Models of horses such as this one, representing as they did wealth and power, played a significant part in emphasising the importance of the occupant of the tomb in which they were placed. The current model is not only extremely rare amongst sancai figures both for the powerful and dramatic stance of the horse, but also for the agile grace of its female rider.

Lot 1271. A large yellow-ground famille rose tripod censer, Qianlong six-character seal mark in iron red and of the period (1736-1795); 14 ½ in. (36.8 cm.) high. Estimate USD 40,000 - USD 60,000. Price realised USD 175,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The censer is sturdily potted and enameled on the body with the Eight Buddhist Emblems amidst lotus flowers and tendrils extending onto the cabriole legs, all beneath a band of ruyi-heads on the shoulder, and is flanked by a pair of upright curved handles. The waisted neck is encircled by floral scroll below a key-fret band on the galleried rim which is interrupted on one side by the reign mark inscribed in a horizontal line.

Peter Paul Rubens, Crown of thorns (Ecce homo), detail, c. 1612. Oil on panel, 125,7 cm × 96 cm © The State Hermitage Museum, Sankt Petersburg 2017

FRANKFURT.- Almost no other artist exercised such a decisive influence on European Baroque painting as Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) did. The Städel Museum in Frankfurt dedicates a comprehensive special exhibition to the world-renowned artist, which is on show from 8 February to 21 May 2018: Rubens. The Power of Transformation comprises about one hundred items— including thirty-one paintings and twenty-three drawings by the master—and explores a hitherto little-regarded aspect in his creative process. The presentation reveals how profound the dialogue was into which Rubens entered with his predecessors’ and contemporaries’ achievements and fathoms the scope of their impact on the five decades of his production. Rubens’s extensive oeuvre reflects the influences of ancient sculpture as well as that of the later art from Italy and north of the Alps, from the masters towards the close of the fifteenth century to the artists of his own day. Frequently, only a closer look will reveal how Rubens drew on the work of artists of different epochs: the exhibition offers an opportunity to comprehend the sometimes astonishing correlations in detail. The cross-genre presentation brings together paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and objets d’art. In addition to original sculptures dating from classical antiquity to the Renaissance, the show also encompasses paintings and prints by Rubens’s precursors and contemporaries, among them key works by Titian and Tintoretto, by Goltzius, Rottenhammer, and Elsheimer, as well as by Giambologna, Van Tetrode, and Van der Schardt. 

Städel Director Philipp Demandt: “We are able to present an extraordinary artist’s genius in all its facets to our public with this large-scale exhibition project. The comprehensive show offers a fascinating view of Baroque masterpieces that have never ceased to spellbind the viewer.” 

“Rubens was one of the most prolific and fascinating artists of the Baroque age who not only influenced numerous subsequent generations in the field but also literally drank in various sources for his pictorial solutions himself. Our exhibition offers the unique opportunity to directly re-enact this creative process in our minds”, says Jochen Sander, curator of the exhibition and Head of German, Dutch and Flemish Paintings before 1800 at the Städel Museum. 

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Centaur tamed by Cupid, c. 1601/02, black chalk on paper, 481 mm x 371 mm. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, Graphische Sammlung © Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, rba_c016031.

Roman, Centaur tamed by Cupid, 1st-2nd century AD. Marble, 147 × 107 × 52 cm. Département des Antiquités grecques, étrusques et romaines, Museé du Louvre, Paris  © bpk / RMN - Grand Palais

The Exhibition 
Structured after pictorial motifs and themes, the tour takes visitors along well-known mythological subjects such as Venus and Adonis, the Judgement of Paris or Prometheus chained to a rock but also confronts them with crucial topics of the Old and the New Testament such as the beheading of Holofernes or the Entombment of Christ. Rubens’s rendering of Christ in Crown of Thorns (Ecce Homo) (c. 1612) already exemplifies the artist’s creative process in the first room of the show: Three exhibits strikingly visualise Rubens’s transformation of an ancient sculpture depicting a centaur into Christ presented to the people. Rubens first made several drawings exploring the ancient sculpture before the motif was developed into his extraordinary representation of Christ in the painting. Completely redefining the subject iconographically, he converted his ancient model of an unbridled, brutish centaur into an image of the suffering Christ calling for the viewer’s empathy. The return to antiquity ensures an extremely astounding representation of Christ’s body, whose athletic upper part is veritably exposed, put on display. 

Peter Paul Rubens, Crown of thorns (Ecce homo), detail, c. 1612. Oil on panel, 125,7 cm × 96 cm © The State Hermitage Museum, Sankt Petersburg 2017.

The ancient Roman sculpture of a crouching Venus preparing to take a bath provides another impressive example: Showing the same pose but conveying a completely different frame of mind, she has not merely been transmuted into a freezing Venus, the Venus Frigida (1614) but also into the goddess of Love lamenting her lover’s death (Venus mourning Adonis, c. 1614). A similarly arresting chain of motifs unravels from a work by the Flemish painter Michiel Coxcie depicting Cains’s murder of his brother (The Death of Abel, c. 1539). Rubens had acquired the study of the slain Abel by Coxcie in the form of a drawing, which he reworked in accordance with his understanding (Abel Slain by Cain, c. 1609). A short time after, the artist altered his solution to describe a tragically failing hero who has fallen backwards to the ground in an impressive drawing (Study of a falling man, c. 1610/11). It was this study on which he directly modelled two further paintings on display in the exhibition: the brilliantly executed representation of the Death of Hippolytus (1611–1613) and his monumental Prometheus (1611/12–1618). Some years later, no lesser artist than Rembrandt (1606 – ca. 1669) would vie with Rubens’s masterpiece that excited wide admiration: His Blinding of Samson (1636), one of the Städel’s capital works, which can only be understood against the background of the artist’s study of Rubens, has, therefore, been included in the exhibition. 

The direct comparison between works by Rubens and their models offers fascinating insights into the ingenious development of the master’s solutions and surprising motific metamorphoses, as well as his intense endeavours for an adequate format and the right form. The peculiarly modern, dynamic appearance of Rubens’s creations is frequently indebted to the very deliberate return to identifiable models, which the artist—in the understanding of the concept of ‘aemulatio’ crucial within his era’s theory of art—even tried to outdo. Each of the transformation processes resulted in a work that immediately enthralled the contemporary viewer and still fascinates us today.  

The special exhibition is a joint project of the Städel Museum and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, five examples from whose rich holdings of works by Rubens have travelled to Frankfurt. Works by Rubens from the Städel’s collection have also been incorporated into the presentation, among them the oil sketch The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine (1628, draft for the high altarpiece of the Church of St Augustine in Antwerp) as well as several important items from its Department of Prints and Drawings.  

It features works from numerous international lenders including the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the National Gallery in London, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Prado and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the Louvre in Paris, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the State Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the Vatican Museums, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. 

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Judith beheading Holofernes, c. 1609/10. Pen and wash in brown on laid paper, 206 mm x 16o mm. Graphische Sammlung, Städel Museum, Frankfurt. Foto: Städel Museum – ARTOTHEK. 

The Artist 
Peter Paul Rubens was born the sixth of seven children in the city of Siegen, Westphalia, in 1577 and died in Antwerp on May 30, 1640. When still a young man, Rubens won international renown as an extraordinarily innovative artist. Yet Rubens was not only a painter but also an art theorist and collector, a respected discussion partner of European scholars and princes, and a diplomat in European employ—all this with Antwerp, the centre of his life, as a starting point. With more than fifty works in churches and museums and the Rubenshuis with its living quarters and adjacent studio, the artist and his work are still present in his hometown in an exceptional manner today. Rubens studied under three teachers, among them the Antwerp painter Otto van Veen (1556–1629). At the age of only twenty-one, he entered the Guild of St Luke, the city’s guild of painters, as a master in 1598, getting to know Antwerp’s intellectual circles. In 1600, he travelled to Italy, where he stayed for eight years. This time—and especially the ancient sculptures he became familiar with then—had a lasting effect on his work. After his return to Antwerp in 1608, Rubens was appointed court painter to Albert, Archduke of Austria, and his wife Isabella Clara Eugenia, Catholic sovereigns of the Southern Netherlands, and married Isabella Brant, the city clerk’s daughter. Rubens had become one of Europe’s most soughtafter painters, who created paintings for kings and princes, political leaders and diplomats. He decided to buy a house in 1610 for his workshop and his family, which he had converted into a small Italian-style city palace. After his first wife had passed away in 1626 and the Archduke of Austria’s death, Rubens became Isabella’s adviser, travelling through Europe in diplomatic mission from 1625 to 1628 to negotiate a possible peace between Spain and England and to campaign for ending the conflicts between the United Provinces in the north and the Southern Netherlands. It was not least thanks to his skill at negotiating that the Treaty of Madrid between England and Spain could be signed in 1630. In 1630, the artist married again: Hélène Fourment, a young woman from a middle-class family, with whom he had five children. Together with his family, Rubens found his last resting place in the memorial chapel of Antwerp’s Saint James’ Church.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Selfportrait, c. 1638. Oil on canvas, 110 cm x 85,5 cm. Gemäldegalerie, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna © KHM-Museumsverband

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and Frans Snyders (Eagle) (1579-1657), Prometheus, 1611/12 -1618. Oil on canvas, 242,6 cm x 209,6 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia © Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund, 1950.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Death of Hippolytus, 1611-1613. Oil on copper, 50,2 cm x 70,8 cm. The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Oil sketch for the Augustinian altarpiece: The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, c. 1628. Oil on oak, 64 cm x 49,2 cm. Städel Museum, Frankfurt © Städel Museum - ARTOTHEK

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), The entombment, c. 1612. Oil on canvas, 131,1 cm x 130,2cm. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © J. Paul Getty Museum

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Torso of Laocoön in three-quarter view, c. 1601-02. Black chalk on paper, 456 mm x 296 mm. Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden© Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden / Photo: Herbert Boswank

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), The resurrected and triumphant Christ, c. 1615. Oil on canvas, 183 cm x 155 cm. Palazzo Pitti, Florenz © Florenz, Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina / su concessione del Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Tourismo.

Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, Pan and Syrinx, 1617. Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister © MHK, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister / Photo: Ute Brunzel.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), The head of Medusa, 1617/18. Oil on canvas, 68,5 cm x 118 cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna © KHM-Museumsverband

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), The judgment of Paris, c. 1639. Oil on canvas, 199 cm x 381 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid © Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Giambologna (nymph), Adriaen de Vries (satyr), Antonio Susini (brass founder), Sleeping nymph and satyr. Before 1587. Bronze, 31,5 x 43,5 x 19,5 cm (with pedestal). Grünes Gewölbe © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden / Photo: Arrigo Coppitz (Florenz)

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Frans Snyders (still life with monkey), Jan Wildens (landscape), Cimon and Efiginia, c. 1617. Oil on canvas, 208 cm x 282 cm. Gemäldegalerie, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna © KHM-Museumsverband

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Venus Frigida, 1614. Oil oak panel, 145,1 cm × 185,6 cm. Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp © www.lukasweb.be - Art in Flanders vzw

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), After Tizian, The worship of Venus, c. 1635. Oil on canvas, 196 cm x 209,9 cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm © Foto: Nationalmuseum.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Venus and Cupid, c. 1628. Oil on canvas, 137 cm x 111 cm. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid © Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (1487 – 1576), Venus and Adonis, 1555-1560. Oil on canvas, 160 cm x 196,5 cm. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © J. Paul Getty Museum

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), The hero of Virtue, crowned by Victory, c. 1615/16. Oil on canvas, 203 cm x 222 cm. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden / Photo: Hans-Peter Klut.

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

Exhibition view of „Rubens. The Power of Transformation“. Photo: Städel Museum

General, Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BC), terracotta. © Mr. Ziyu Qiu.

LIVERPOOL.- The Terracotta Warriors have returned to the UK. In an exhibition being staged at Liverpool’s World Museum, this is the first time in more than 30 years that spectacular Class 1 National Cultural Treasures from the tomb of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, have been brought to a museum in the UK outside London. 

Planned for a run of more than six months, from February to October 2018, visitors to World Museum are being given a glimpse into the extraordinary story of Qin Shihuangdi, the First Emperor of China (221 to 206 BC). His vast burial site and tomb complex was discovered near Xi’an in North West China in 1974, and the story of the tomb’s Terracotta Warriors is being displayed alongside important artefacts and research relating to the formative years of the Chinese nation, from the pre-unification Qin Kings (307 to 221 BC) to the First Emperor’s legacy in the Han Dynasty (206BC to 220AD). 

Charioteer, Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BC), terracotta. © Mr. Ziyu Qiu.

Since 1974, archaeologists have unearthed more than 8,000 life-sized Terracotta Warriors near Xi’an - each with individual clothing, hair and facial features – and have located more than 600 pits around the Emperor’s mausoleum, covering an area of 22 square miles. New discoveries are continually coming to light, which indicate that Emperor Qin wished to take the entire universe with him into the afterlife. 

The tradition of burial practice was continued by the Emperor’s successors in the later Han Dynasty, who constructed vast underground chambers and passageways filled with food and drink as well as clay servants and animals; everything the Emperors would need to ensure they enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle for eternity in their underground palaces.  

Archer, Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BC), terracotta. © Mr. Ziyu Qiu.

World Museum’s exhibition includes material from museums and institutes from across Shaanxi Province - where the First Emperor and his ancestors came from - excavated over the last 40 years from the Imperial Mausoleum and selected tombs. These spectacular artefacts dating from 307 BC to the 2nd century AD, along with remarkable recent archaeological discoveries, not only shed light on the pursuit of immortality and how China’s Emperors prepared for the afterlife, but also help us to understand more about everyday life in China over two thousand years ago. 

World Museum’s Terracotta Warriors exhibition is a major part of Liverpool’s 2018 celebrations, marking 10 years since the city held the title of European Capital of Culture 2008.

Painted cavalryman, Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BC), terracotta. © Mr. Ziyu Qiu.

Kneeling attendant, Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BC), terracotta. © Mr. Ziyu Qiu.

Armoured infantryman, Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BC), terracotta. © Mr. Ziyu Qiu.

Painted soldier with a hat, Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BC), terracotta. © Mr. Ziyu Qiu.

Gilt bronze animal mask handle, Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BC). © Mr. Ziyu Qiu.

Gold charriot fitting with animal mask design, Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BC). © Mr. Ziyu Qiu.

Gold beltt buckle with mandarin duck design, Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BC). © Mr. Ziyu Qiu.

Bronze belt decoratd with gold and silver inlay, Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BC). © Mr. Ziyu Qiu.

Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515–1586), Nymph of the Spring. Courtesy San Diego Museum of Art.

SAN DIEGO, CA.- The San Diego Museum of Art announced the acquisition of two outstanding paintings, Nymph of the Spring (ca. 1540) by Lucas Cranach the Younger and Portrait of John Alfred Parsons Millet (1892) by John Singer Sargent. Both works fill important gaps in the Museum’s holdings, with the Sargent strengthening the already expansive collection of portraits, and the Cranach being the most important Northern Renaissance painting in the collection. Nymph of the Spring is currently on display in Genre and Myth, and Portrait of John Alfred Parsons Millet is on view in the American Art galleries. 

Nymph of the Spring by Lucas Cranach the Younger is an exceptionally well-preserved painting of a nude lying in a landscape, softly gazing at the viewer. The son of Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), a well-known German Renaissance artist, Lucas the Younger (1515–1586) followed in his father’s footsteps and the two became the greatest artistic proponents of the Reformation. Together, the family ran one of the most influential art workshops of that time, which Lucas the Younger took charge of about a decade before his father died. Nymph of the Spring was painted during this time, when father and son often worked together, and it appears likely that the elder Cranach contributed some of the more delicate features of the female figure. 

Extensive technical analysis of the paint layer and underlying support were carried out at the Balboa Art Conservation Center under the supervision of Dr. Michael Brown, Associate Curator of European Art at The San Diego Museum of Art. Evidence from these examinations supports the authenticity of the work and clearly indicates the excellence of its condition. This painting’s remarkable state of preservation has allowed its immediate display for the enjoyment of visitors to the Museum. Nymph of the Spring was purchased from London-based owners with funds provided by Toni Bloomberg; Gene and Taffin Ray; an anonymous donor; Kevin Rowe & Irene Vlitos Rowe, and the Museum’s Acquisition Fund. 

“During the time of the Reformation, Cranach’s mythological scenes like this one were especially popular with his sophisticated patrons, when Humanism and the Italian Renaissance were beginning to reach Northern Europe through artists like Cranach,” said Roxana Velásquez, Maruja Baldwin Executive Director of The San Diego Museum of Art. “Very seldom does a work of such exceptional quality become available, which makes this a very rare opportunity for the Museum to welcome this renowned artist into our permanent collection. We hope this masterpiece, which is now the Museum’s most important Northern Renaissance work, will resonate with and inspire viewers for many years to come.” 

One of The San Diego Museum of Art’s great strengths is an outstanding collection of portraits. To these masterpieces, the Museum has added John Singer Sargent’s (1856-1925) Portrait of John Alfred Parsons Millet, which now hangs alongside portraits by Thomas Eakins and Robert Henri in the American Art galleries. This very personal portrait – the sitter was named after Sargent – captures the young child, caught in a playful, relaxed pose. It is exemplary of Sargent’s skill and flair, and is the first painting by Sargent, the most fashionable portrait painter of his day, to enter the Museum’s collection. 

Portraits like this made Sargent one of the first artists to represent children with their own personal qualities rather than more formally as small-scale adults. In his day Sargent was known primarily for his beautiful landscapes and stunning portraits. The artist’s unparalleled mastery of color contrasts and impressionist brushwork made him the most sought-after portraitist of his generation. 

“The Museum has acquired works by many important portraitists throughout time, yet one of the great American painters of the genre was absent,” explained Velásquez. “With the acquisition of Sargent’s Portrait of John Alfred Parsons Millet, we dramatically enhance our ability to present the full story of portraiture and American art.” 

Portrait of John Alfred Parsons Millet was purchased by the Museum from a private collection, with funds from The Jack Thomas Family Charitable Fund in memory of Patricia B. Thomas; Toni Bloomberg; Gene and Taffin Ray; Sheryl and Harvey White; and Mrs. John Burnham by exchange. The painting has toured the world, including exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Detroit Institute of Art. 

“It is our responsibility to grow the collection in a considered, strategic, and thoughtful way,” said Harvey White, President of the Board of Trustees. “These two masterworks magnificently strengthen the Museum’s mission to inspire, educate, and cultivate curiosity through great works of art.”

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), Portrait of John Alfred Parsons Millet, signed John S. Sargent and dated 1892 (upper right); inscribed to my friend Mrs. Millet (upper center), oil on canvas, 36 1/4 by 24 1/8 inches. Courtesy San Diego Museum of Art. 

Lot 75D. Amphibian Lime Container, Vietnam, Đông Sơn culture, ca. 500 BCE to 0 CE; 6.5" L x 2.875" H (16.5 cm x 7.3 cm). Est: $1,500 - $2,000. © Artemis Gallery

An incredible and rare cast-bronze amphibious vessel used to contain lime powder. The composition of the container emulates the form of a stylized quadruped frog with each relief-coil leg retracted beneath its bulbous body. Its projecting head is comprised of beady eyes, discoid ears, impressed nostrils, full, striated lips, a small spout in the middle of its back, and a comical grin stretching from cheek to cheek. The vessel is adorned with a densely-congregated spiralized motif, and gorgeous layers of green and blue-green patina envelop the exterior. Lime paste is used to make an intoxicating chew from betel nuts, which is a common custom in central and southeastern Asia. 

All four feet repaired and reattached with minor chips along break lines. Surface has been previously cleaned to remove some earthen encrustations. Expected age-commensurate surface wear and abrasions, fading to some details, with small nicks to face, body, and legs, otherwise excellent. Nice earthen deposits and beautiful green and blue-green patina throughout.

Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-private Australia collection, acquired mid-1990s

Note: The Dong Son are famous for their bronzes and zoomorphic depictions. Animals are sometimes found as motifs on their large bronze drums, alongside motifs of boats, and other everyday items. Based on the fantastical characteristics of many of these representations, it seems likely that the artisans creating them saw some mythical role and purposes for these animals.  

The casting technique for Dong Son bronzes was demanding artistically and technically, and it seems likely based on archaeological investigation that they were made by local workshops staffed by specialists. These specialists shared knowledge throughout their geographic region, and vessels like this one are constructed similarly to those from the Warring States period in China, with a distinctive Dong Son flare.  

Dong Son bronzes have been found from around the Red River delta (where they were made) all the way south to Java and New Guinea, demonstrating a huge geographical trading spread. The Dong Son culture thrived in northern Vietnam and its burials, rich in bronze goods, demonstrate an elevated level of wealth relative to neighboring areas. As elsewhere in the Old World, there is a clear relationship between sophisticated bronze metallurgical technology and the development of a highly stratified society. 

Exceptional Antiquities & Ethnographic Art by Artemis Gallery, February 15, 2018, 8:00 AM MST

Lot 904. A rare large bronze ritual food vessel, yu, Early Western Zhou dynasty, 11th-10th century BC; 15 ¼ in. (37.7 cm.) wide across handles. Estimate USD 80,000 - USD 120,000. Price realised USD 287,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The bowl-shaped vessel is flanked by a pair of projecting, inverted U-shaped handles. The exterior is decorated with a narrow band of whorls alternating with stylized dragons, and the foot is cast with a band of threetaotie masks. The bottom of the interior is cast with a single clan mark, Ge. The surface has a thin layer of malachite and cuprite encrustation, and the base is further covered with bright blue azurite encrustation.

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 16 May 1967, lot 38.
Arthur M. Sackler Collections. 
Else Sackler, 1997. 
The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation.

Literature: Minao Hayashi, In Shu jidai seidoki no kenkyu (Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronzes), vol. 2, Tokyo, 1984, pl. 139, xiao xing yu no. 22.
J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1990, pp. 454-59, no. 59.

Exhibited: On loan: Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Fitchburg Art Museum, September 2005-2015.

Note: The single clan mark cast on the interior of the present vessel is in the shape of a ge dagger-axe. The Ge clan is one of the oldest and most extensive clans in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Some of the earliest bronze vessels bearing the Ge clan mark were found in Wuguan Village, Anyang City, and are dated to the early second phase of the Anyang period, circa early 13th century BC. The patron of the present yu vessel was likely from one of the branches of the Ge clan that lived in the Zhou land (in modern-day Shaanxi) and managed to maintain their power and wealth under the Zhou rule.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York

Lot 962. A magnificent pair of zitan compound cabinets and hatchests, sijiangui, 19th century; 94 3/8 in. (239.8 cm.) high, 45 in. (114.3 cm.) wide, 21 3/8 in. (54.4 cm.) deep. Estimate USD 550,000 - USD 750,000. Price realised USD 600,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Each cabinet is of massive rectangular form. The hatchest has square panel doors, elaborately carved in deep relief with a single dragon chasing a flaming pearl amidst clouds, above the larger cabinet set with single-panel doors finely carved with four five-clawed dragons chasing a flaming pearl amidst swirling clouds, below a single horizontal panel carved with dragons confronting a flaming pearl. The doors are centered around a removable stile, and open to reveal the shelved interior, above the shaped apron carved en suite with confronting dragons. Each cabinet is fitted withbaitong metal hardware and the feet are clad in baitong sabots.

Note: Massive in size and richly carved with dynamic five-clawed dragons against a dense landscape of swirling clouds, the present pair would have been important furnishings in creating an imposing and majestic interior space. The present pair of cabinets are related to a pair of zitan compound cabinets and hatchests located in the bedroom behind the Yang Xin Dian(The Hall of Mental Cultivation), photographed in situ in The CompleteCollection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 54 – Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (II), Hong Kong, 2002, p. 296, pl. 249. which exhibits the sumptuous effect of an interior space furnished with highly ornate zitan furniture. 

Cabinets of this type were commonly constructed in pairs and could be placed on opposing walls, flush with each other, or separated by a smaller piece of furniture, like the pair in the Yang Xin Dian. Due to their impressive size, compound cabinets were intended to serve as a central focal point of the interior space. Garments and large items would have been stored in the lower cabinets, while smaller items would have been kept in the top chests, often requiring the use of a ladder. Fitted with shelves and oftentimes with drawers, their generous size made them ideal for storing long scrolls, bolts of fabric, garments, and books. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York

Lot 977. A huanghuali round-corner tapered cabinet, yuanjiaogui, 17th century; 74 7/8 in. (190.2 cm.) high, 36 ¼ in. (92.1 cm.) wide, 19 5/8 in. (49.8 cm.) deep. Estimate USD 200,000 - USD 300,000. Price realised USD 468,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The beautifully-proportioned cabinet is constructed with a rounded rectangular double-molded and beaded top, supported on elegantly splayed legs of double-molded and beaded square section. The large panels of the doors are set within double-molded and beaded frames and open to reveal the shelved interior fitted with drawers, all above plain aprons and spandrels on all four sides.

Provenance: Schoeni Fine Oriental Art, Hong Kong, 1990s.

Note: The round-corner tapered cabinet, or yuanjiaogui, is amongst the most beautiful and elegant designs in all of classical Chinese furniture. The very subtle splay in its design lends a sense of stability and balance to the form while retaining a very graceful and pleasing profile. The form was widely used in cabinet making throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. 

Lot 948. A rare pair of huanghuali square cabriole-leg stools, 17th-18th century; 20 ¾ in. (52.7 cm.) high, 18 ¾ in. (47.6 cm.) square. Estimate USD 200,000 - USD 300,000. Price realised USD 432,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Each has a mat seat set in the square frame above a narrow waist and shaped, beaded aprons. The whole is raised on elegant, beaded cabriole legs joined by humpback stretchers and terminating in scroll feet.

Provenance: Chan Shing Kee, Hong Kong, November 1994.

Property from the Nancy and Ed Rosenthal Collection.

Literature: V. Bower, S. Handler and J. Burris, Brush Clay Wood: The Nancy and Ed Rosenthal Collection of Chinese Art, Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, 2008, p. 51, fig. 22.

Exhibited: Cincinnati, Taft Museum of Art, Brush Clay Wood: The Nancy and Ed Rosenthal Collection of Chinese Art, 7 November 2008 - 11 January 2009.

Note: A pair of similar huanghuali stools, also dated to the 17th century, in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Piccus, was sold at Christie’s New York, 18 September 1997, lot 44. A single huanghuali cabriole leg stool is illustrated by Wang Shixiang in Ming Shi Jia Ju Zhen Shang (Appreciation of Ming Style Furniture), Beijing, 1985, p. 63, pl. 17, formerly of the Flacks Family Collection, was sold at Christie’s New York, 16 September 2016, lot 1137. See, also, another single huanghuali cabriole leg stool, in the Wang Shixiang Collection, with shaped aprons and giant’s arm’s braces illustrated by Wang Shixiang in Ming Shi Jia Ju Zhen Shang (Appreciation of Ming Style Furniture), Beijing, 1985, p. 64, pl. 18. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York 

Lot 1025. An important imperial spinach-green jade book-set, Qianlong period (1736–1795); 4 3/8 x 7 ¼ in. (11.2 x 18.3 cm.), each plaque. Estimate USD 200,000 - USD 300,000. Price realised USD 396,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The book comprises eight rectangular plaques, beginning with the cover incised and painted in two tones of gilt with the nine-character title, yu zhi shi quan lao ren zhi bao shuo between a pair of descending dragons above waves, the reverse and continuing twelve sides with inscriptions written inlishu (clerical script), recording the entire text of the Qianlong Emperor's essay Shiquan laoren zhibao shuo (Disquisition on the Seal of an Old Man of Perfect Completion). The back of the last plaque is further decorated with a front-faced dragon chasing a flaming pearl above crested waves and amidst cloud swirls, huali box. 

Provenance: Gump’s Inc., San Francisco, 18 June 1955.
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William D. Gibbs, and thence by descent within the family.

Note: Jade books were highly sumptuous items made only for the most important rituals or investitures of emperors. During the Qianlong period, however, jade books were also made for the pleasure of the Qianlong Emperor, in part due to his fascination with jade, and in part due to the increase in supply of the material following the pacification of the Xinjiang area in 1759. This group of Qianlong jade books bear inscriptions of primarily three different categories. The first is the conferment of special titles to imperial members, such as a celadon jade book documenting the conferment of the title Empress Dowager Chongqing to the Qianlong Emperor's mother in 1771, in the Beijing Palace Museum Collection and illustrated in Life in the Forbidden City of Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2007, no. 19. The second type of jade book is inscribed with Buddhist sutras and texts, such as a jade sutra book with aloeswood covers, mounted in yellow brocade frames and fitted in a folding hard-board brocade box, incised and gilt with the Foshuo shi jixiang jing sutra. This example, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Imperial Packing Art of Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2007, pp. 132-33. The third type, like the current book, records essays or poems by the Qianlong Emperor himself, sometimes to express his views on certain subjects or to commemorate his glorious achievements. 

The present book, which records the Qianlong Emperor's essay Shiquan laoren zhibao shuo (Disquisition on the Seal of An Old Man of Perfect Completion), is particularly important among all jade books. In the 57th year of the Qianlong reign (1792), the Qing army led by general Fu Kangan repelled the Gurkhas’ second invasion of Tibet. This great victory concluded Qianlong’s glorious military career, which he counted as shiquan wugong (ten complete military accomplishments) and which included two campaigns against the Dzungars; the pacification of the revolt of the Muslim tribes; two battles against tribal people in Jinchuan; pacification of Taiwan; a campaign in Burma; a campaign in Vietnam; and twice accepting surrender of the Gurkhas (See Qing Gaozong yuzhi shiwen quanji [An Anthology of Imperial Poetry and Prose Composed by Gaozong of the Qing Period], the third collection, vol. 8, p. 7). Soon thereafter he began calling himself shiquan laoren (The Old Man with Ten Accomplishments). In the same year, Qianlong ordered the imperial workshops to carve the shiquan laoren zhibao seal (Fig. 1) and composed the Shiquan laoren zhibao shuo (Disquisition on the Seal of the Old Man of Perfect Completion). In this essay, the Qianlong Emperor elaborated on the profound meaning of the phrase shiquan. He stated at the beginning that “the term shiquan originally refers to the ten military accomplishments but the words contain a far deeper significance...... The military exploit is but one aspect of the duty of the sovereign.” The character shi, besides its literal meaning of 'ten', also means 'perfect', and the character quan means 'all completion'. By calling himself shiquan laoren, Qianlong not only celebrated his ten military accomplishments but also expressed his ambition of becoming an emperor of perfect completion. Thereafter, the imperial workshops recorded this essay in various medium such as kesiand jade books. In the first year of Jiaqing (1796), after abdicating the throne to his son Yongyan (Jiaqing Emperor), Qianlong announced in an edict that “the Shiquan laoren zhibao shuo jade books will become the precious book conferring him the title of Emperor emeritus. 

According to Guo Fuxiang of the Palace Museum, Beijing, there are more than twenty Shiquan laoren zhibao shuo (Disquisition on the Seal of the Old Man of Perfect Completion) jade books in various materials and sizes made during the late Qianlong period. One set made of greyish-white jade and mounted in folding hardwood frames is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, are illustrated in The All Complete Qianlong: the Aesthetic Tastes of the Qing Emperor Gaozong, Taipei, 2013, pp. 34-45, no. I-1.2. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York