New exhibition highlights 450-year-old terracotta bust by famed sculptor Alessandro Vittoria

June 18, 2018, 4:30 am

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Alessandro Vittoria, Giulio Contarini (detail), c. 1570-1576, painted terracotta, 74.3 x 61 x 30.7 cm with integral base. Photo: NGC

OTTAWA.- From June 13 to September 16, 2018, the National Gallery of Canada presents Masters of Venetian Portraiture: Veronese, Tiepolo, Vittoria as part of its Masterpiece in Focus series. Featuring 17 works – including three sculptures, 12 works on paper, one book and one painting – the exhibition looks at how portraiture played a key role in elevating and celebrating social status during the late Baroque and Renaissance periods. 

At the centre of the exhibition is a terracotta bust sculpted in the 1570s by Alessandro Vittoria (1525-1608), one of the greatest portraitists working in three dimensions in sixteenth-century Italy. The bust marked the first Vittoria work acquired for a Canadian public collection when it was purchased by the National Gallery of Canada in 2002. This work, one of possibly only two autograph busts by the famed sculptor currently residing in the Western Hemisphere, was carefully restored by the Gallery’s Chief of Conservation and Technical Research Doris Couture-Rigert in 2005. 

Alessandro Vittoria, Giulio Contarini, c. 1570–1576, painted terracotta, 74.3 x 61 x 30.7 cm. (with integral base). National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo: NGC.

Alessandro Vittoria, Giulio Contarini (detail), c. 1570–1576, painted terracotta, 74.3 x 61 x 30.7 cm. (with integral base). National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo: NGC

Sitting 74.3 cm tall, the terracotta bust depicts Vittoria’s close friend and patron, Giulio Contarini (1500-1580), who held the notable position of procurator at St. Mark’s Basilica for more than 40 years. Portraying a remarkable resemblance to Contarini – from the fine detail of his hair and beard to the soft lines on his face and delicate folds of his clothing – the terracotta bust served as an accurate model for a separate marble version that sits on Contarini’s funerary monument in the church of Santa Maria del Giglio in Venice. Even more remarkable is that the terracotta bust has survived some 450 years – a rarity for a sculpture of its kind. 

“The terracotta bust of Giulio Contarini is a magnificent Renaissance sculpture with a fascinating story,” said National Gallery of Canada Director and CEO, Marc Mayer. “I was interested to learn that the great Tiepolo, for example, made a series of chalk studies after it more than a century and a half after it was created. This jewel of a show places Alessandro Vittoria’s bust in conversation with other remarkable works from the period.”  

Alessandro Vittoria, Saint Sebastian, c. 1566, bronze, 54.3 x 16.2 x 16.2 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Samuel D. Lee Fund, 1940 (40.24)

Alessandro Vittoria, Saint Sebastian, (detail) c. 1566, bronze, 54.3 x 16.2 x 16.2 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Samuel D. Lee Fund, 1940 (40.24)

Complementing Vittoria’s bust are other works on view from the Gallery’s permanent collection, as well as exclusive pieces on loan from North American Institutions including The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among the highlights are a painting of Vittoria by the greatest Venetian painter of the period, Paolo Veronese (1528-1588); and North America’s only collection of studies on Vittoria’s terracotta bust by Venetian Rococo artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770). These studies were done almost 200 years after the completion of Vittoria’s terracotta bust, which Tiepolo used as a teaching prop in his family’s studio.  

Paolo Caliari (called Veronese), Alessandro Vittoria, c. 1580, oil on canvas, 110.5 x 81.9 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gwynne Andrews Fund, 1946 (46.31).

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Head of Giulio Contarini, after a Bust by Alessandro Vittoria, c. 1743, red chalk heightened with white chalk on blue laid paper, 20.7 x 16.9 cm . Gift of an anonymous donor, 2004. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Photo: NGC

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Head of Giulio Contarini, after a Bust by Alessandro Vittoria, c. 1743, red chalk heightened with white chalk on blue laid paper, 27.2 x 19.7 cm. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Photo: NGC

“Long before the era of selfies and social media, portraiture held an important social role in Renaissance Venice,” said Sonia Del Re, the Gallery’s Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, who organized the exhibition. “The history of the bust gives us a unique opportunity to propose a focused display that sketches the social and material context in which the work was created, and in which it was then circulated.” 

Together the works on view in Masters of Venetian Portraiture: Veronese, Tiepolo, Vittoria speak to the mastery of Vittoria as a portraitist, and the magnitude of his influence on Venetian artists and patrons across time.

Giuseppe Scolari (after Alessandro Vittoria), Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, c. 1590, woodcut, second state, 53.7 x 37.3 cm. (trimmed to the borderline). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of W. G. Russell Allen.

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A rare Ming iron-red decorated 'fish' dish, Hongzhi-Zhengde period (1488-1521)

June 18, 2018, 4:49 am

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Lot 3728. A rare Ming iron-red decorated 'fish' dish, Hongzhi-Zhengde period (1488-1521); 8 1/4 in. (21 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 450,000 - HKD 550,000. Price Realized HKD 560,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

Potted with flared sides, decorated on the exterior with four evenly spaced fish, swimming in the same direction, rendered in two tones of iron-red, the scales delicately incised reserving fine white lines, bordered by double-circles below the lipped mouth rim and repeated above the base, the slightly tapered foot ring further with a single iron-red circle, the interior with a single fish in the medallion within double-circles, Japanese wood box.

Property from the Yiqingge Collection.

Exhibited: The Gotoh Museum, 14 February-12 March 1967.

Note: Compare the similar cup stand illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 486, no. 16:62. Another similar example was sold at Christie's New York, 22 March 2007, lot 291.

The shape and decoration on this cup stand is based on blue and white and underglaze red examples from Jingdezhen which were also made during the Hongwu period. For a blue and white example see the cup stand excavated at Dongmentou, Zhushan, Jingdezhen, in 1994, illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, pp. 100-1, no. 17, where a cup is also shown. 

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

A Ming blue and white oviform jar, Jiajing six-character mark and of the period (1522-1566)

June 18, 2018, 4:57 am

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Lot 3730. A Ming blue and white oviform jar, Jiajing six-character mark and of the period (1522-1566); 10 in. (25.5 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 500,000 - HKD 700,000. Price Realized HKD 860,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

The rounded body painted with five horses leaping over swirling and breaking waves above a band of cloud-shaped lappets encircling the base, all below the anbaxiang, Eight Treasures, emblems attached to beaded jewellery chains suspending from a band ofruyi-head on the shoulder, below a tapered cylindrical neck with lotus scrolls, Japanese wood box.

Property from the Yiqingge Collection.

Provenance: Hirano Kotoken.

Note: Compare with three jars of this shape and pattern, the first is illustrated in Selected Masterpieces from the Collection of the Nezu Art Museum, 1968, no. 310; in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (II), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 112, no. 102; and another from the Christina Loke Balsara Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 19 January 1988, lot 256. . 

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

A very rare Yuan blue and white pear-shaped 'dragon' vase, yuhuchunping, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368)

June 18, 2018, 5:07 am

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Lot 3805. A very rare Yuan blue and white pear-shaped 'dragon' vase, yuhuchunping, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 11 1/4 in. (28.5 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 500,000 - HKD 700,000. Price Realized HKD 860,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

The full, pear-shaped body raised on a short, slightly spreading foot, rising to a slender neck and widely everted trumpet mouth, freely painted in vivid tones of purplish-blue cobalt with a powerful striding three-clawed dragon among flame scrolls in pursuit of a 'flaming pearl', the foot encircled by a stylised scroll band.

Provenance: Previously sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 28 April 1998, lot 726.

Note: Striding dragons chasing a flaming pearl are a very effective motif applied to the swelling bodies of pear-shaped vases yuhuchun ping such as the current example, but are relatively rare. A slightly smaller pear-shaped vase with similarly disposed dragon to that on the present vessel is in the collection of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics in Osaka illustrated by Zhu Yuping in Yuandai qinghua ci, Wenhui chubanshe, Shanghai, 2000, p. 87, no. 3-45. Another slightly smaller vase formerly in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Clark and previously in the C.E. Russell Collection from which it was loaned to the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, held at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1935-6 (exhibit no. 1434) is illustrated by Sir Harry Garner in Oriental Blue and White, Faber and Faber, London, 1954, pl. 3. The vase was later sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, The Meiyintang Collection, 7 April 2011, lot 38. A further example was excavated in 1988 from a tomb of the Wengniute Banner at Wutonghua, north of Chifeng and was exhibited in Empires Beyond the Great Wall - The Heritage of Genghis Khan, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 1993, p. 141, no. 91.

These vases, along with the current example, do not have any motifs other than the 'flaming pearl' accompanying the three-clawed dragons, but a somewhat larger pear-shaped vase in the collection of the Henan Provincial Museum is decorated with a four-clawed dragon accompanied by fungus-shaped clouds (illustrated by Zhu Yuping, op.cit., p. 101, no. 4-15). A pear-shaped vase with cut-down neck and a three-clawed dragon in the collection of the British Museum, London, also shows the dragon accompanied by clouds and additionally had a petal band around the lower part of the body illustrated by Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, British Museum Press, London, 2001, p. 72-3, no. 1:29.

The type of energetic three-clawed dragon seen on the current vase also provided a popular theme on stem cups, as can be seen from an example in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 14, no. 12, and two examples in the collection of the British Museum, London illustrated by Jessica Harrison-Hall, op. cit., pp. 70-1, nos. 1:24 and 1:25 and on lot 3807 of this sale.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

A very rare blue and white octagonal pear-shaped vase, yuhuchunping, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368)

June 18, 2018, 5:17 am

≫ Next: A large Longquan celadon jar and cover, Late Yuan-Early Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century

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Lot 3806. A very rare blue and white octagonal pear-shaped vase, yuhuchunping, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 11 3/4 in. (30.2 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 250,000 - HKD 350,000. Price Realized HKD 325,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

Moulded in three horizontal registers with lotus-shaped panels around the base enclosing eight precious objects, babao, the lozenge shaped panels around the body enclosing lotus and peony sprays and bouquets alternating with trellis patterns and lotus sprays emerging from waves, the shoulder with three panels depicting the friends of winter, pine, prunus and bamboo beneath a keyfret band and upright lappets encircling the outturned neck, the interior of the mouth painted with trefoils.

Provenance: Previously sold at Christie's London, 12 June 1989, lot 165
Anthony du Boulay Collection, no. P242.

Exhibited: The London Asian Art Fair, Porcelain for the Emperors, June 2003, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 1

Note: This appears to be an otherwise unrecorded design featuring a more complex composition than usually found on vases of the form, interspersing floral sprays with geometric-ground panels around the body producing an interesting vertical variant of the radiating alternate bands found on blue and white dishes of this period. Other rare octagonal yuhuchunping of this period are more commonly painted with different upright floral sprays to each body facet and the lotus panels around the base enclose the more often-encountered pendent lappets or scrolls. Two examples of approximately the same size as the present example are illustrated in Yuan dai ciqi, Beijing, 1998, p. 49, nos. 45 and 47. A blue and white octagonal ewer unearthed in 1964 from Baoding in Hebei featuring a similar register of babao around the shoulder was included in the Capital Museum, Beijing exhibition, Blue and White of the Yuan, Beijing, 2009 and illustrated in the Catalogue, pp. 70-71.

Compare with a hexagonal blue and white vase of the same form decorated with similar geomtric patterns around the main panels alternating with fruiting branches rather than the flower sprays found on the present example sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 20 March 1990, lot 515 and illustrated in Christie's 20 Years in Hong Kong, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Highlights, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 45.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

A large Longquan celadon jar and cover, Late Yuan-Early Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century

June 18, 2018, 5:41 am

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Lot 3816. A large Longquan celadon jar and cover, Late Yuan-Early Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century; 12 in. (30.4 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 300,000 - HKD 400,000. Price Realized HKD 375,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

Well potted with generously rounded shoulders, the convex base encircled by an unglazed foot burnt a russet color, the lotus leaf-form cover with partially upturned rim applied with a small stem-like knop, the glaze of bright blue-green tone.

Note: Longquan celadon jars of this form were first made during the Song dynasty and continued to be made into the early Ming dynasty. A smaller jar and cover (23.8 cm.) of Song dynasty date unearthed at Suining City, Sichuan province and now in the Suining City Museum was included in the exhibition, Urban Life in the Song, Yuan & Ming, Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1994, p. 72-73. For an example of early to mid-14th century date, see R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, vol. I, London, 1986, p. 293, fig. 215. A fine ribbed example of comparable size was sold at Christie's New York, The Hardy Collection of Early Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art from the Sze Yuan Tang, 21 September 1995, lot 121.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

A rare finely carved early Ming Longquan celadon dish, Ming dynasty, early 15th century

June 18, 2018, 5:52 am

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≪ Previous: A large Longquan celadon jar and cover, Late Yuan-Early Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century

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Lot 3813. A rare finely carved early Ming Longquan celadon dish, Ming dynasty, early 15th century; 14 3/4 in. (37.5 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 350,000 - HKD 450,000. Price Realized HKD 800,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

Heavily potted with shallow, gently curving sides rising to a lipped rim, supported on a rounded foot ring, the broad central field carved with a branch of flowering peony below a band of continuous floral scroll in the well and a band of leafy scroll at the rim, the exterior decorated with cresting waves below double line borders, all under a rich celadon-green glaze darkening in the recesses and extending over the foot, leaving an unglazed ring on the base burnt orange in the firing, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: A Japanese private collection

Note: A number of dishes of similar form but decorated with different fruiting and flowering branches have are known. Compare a dish of similar size decorated with fruiting lychee sold at Christie's New York, 20 March 1997, lot 141. Another, smaller dish decorated on the interior with Indian lotus vase in the National Palace Museum, Taipei , was included in the exhibition Green-Longquan Celadon of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2009, pp. 96-97, no. 45.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

A fine and very rare anhua-decorated white-glazed dish, Jiajing four-character mark within double-circles and of the period

June 18, 2018, 5:59 am

≫ Next: A finely carved large Dingyao floral bowl, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127)

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Lot 3824. A fine and very rare anhua-decorated white-glazed dish, Jiajing four-character mark within double-circles and of the period (1522-1566); 6 in.(15.2 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 150,000 - HKD 250,000. Price Realized HKD 800,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

The shallow dish with flared sides, incised to the centre with a lotus spray, the exterior with a lotus scroll, covered overall in a slightly tinted glaze, box.

Provenance: Previously sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 20 May 1987, lot 432

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

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A finely carved large Dingyao floral bowl, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127)

June 18, 2018, 6:16 am

≫ Next: A carved 'Yaozhou' celadon bowl, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234)

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Lot 3810. A finely carved large Dingyao floral bowl, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 9 5/8 in. (24.5 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 350,000 - HKD 450,000. Price Realized HKD 437,500. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

Potted with a slightly everted rim and steep rounded walls rising from an angled base, supported on a delicate foot ring, the interior freely carved with meandering lotus blossoms, all under a translucent ivory-white glaze pooling in the recesses, the rim bound in metal, wood box.

Note: Compare a similar example in the Tokyo National Museum illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, vol. 1, Kodansha Series, Japan, 1982, no. 9.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

A carved 'Yaozhou' celadon bowl, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234)

June 18, 2018, 6:24 am

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Lot 3809. A carved 'Yaozhou' celadon bowl, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 5 1/2 in. (13.9 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 60,000 - HKD 80,000. Price Realized HKD 93,750. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

Of rounded conical form, the interior well carved with a single floral spray, surrounded by combed waves in an encircling band below an incised line, with a grooved band below the rim on the exterior, covered overall with an olive-green glaze, the unglazed foot burnt brown in the firing, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: A Japanese private collection

Exhibited: Gotoh Museum, Tokyo

Note: See a bowl with identical carved decoration, in the Robert Barron Collection, illustrated by L. Rotondo-McCord, Heaven and Earth Seen Within, New Orleans Museum of Art, 2000, pp. 60-1, no. 15; and another sold at Christie's New York, 19 September 2006, lot 216.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

Classic Beauties unveils the sensual enchantment of Neoclassicism

June 18, 2018, 8:03 am

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© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

AMSTERDAM.- Saturday 16 June 2018 marked the opening day of Hermitage Amsterdam’s new exhibition, Classic Beauties. Artists, Italy and the Esthetic Ideals of the 18th Century. The show tells the story of the artists and tourists, who flocked to Italy, and more especially Rome, in the second half of the eighteenth century. From all over Europe they travelled to the Eternal City in search of inspiration and to see for themselves the newly excavated classical Greco-Roman sculptures and buildings. Their experiences prompted an austere kind of fashionable architecture, but in the visual arts, a new, unprecedentedly sensual style sent shock waves through society: a naked, superhuman beauty more daring than anything attempted by the Greeks and Romans. Neoclassicism was born.  

Craze 
The archaeological finds sparked a craze for travel among young aristocrats across the continent. Many spent months travelling to and sightseeing in Italy. Among them were Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the ‘Count and Countess of the North’ (the later Russian Tsar Paul I and his wife Maria Fyodorovna). In the course of their ‘Grand Tour’ they encountered the greatest artists of the day. 

Johann Friedrich August Tischbein, Portrait of Tsarevich Paul, n.d. Private collection.

With over sixty sculptures, paintings and drawings by 25 top names, the exhibition offers visitors their own Grand Tour of Italy. On the way, it introduces them to the artists of the period, including Pompeo Batoni, Anton Raphael Mengs, Angelica Kauffmann, Giovanni Piranesi and – most celebrated of all – Antonio Canova. The show features no fewer than eight sculptures by the latter, including his iconic Three Graces, Amor and Psyche and Hebe. 

Antonio Canova, The Three Graces, 1812 © Aurelio Amendola / State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Antonio Canova, The Three Graces, 1812–16© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Antonio Canova, The Three Graces, 1812–16 (detail)© Aurelio Amendola / State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg 

Antonio Canova, The Three Graces, 1812–16 (detail)© Aurelio Amendola / State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Antonio Canova, Hebe, 1800–5© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Antonio Canova, Hebe, 1800–5 (detail) © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Antonio Canova, Dancer, 1805–12© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Antonio Canova, Dancer, 1805–12 (detail) © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

A rich selection 
To create Classic Beauties, the Hermitage Amsterdam has had exclusive access to the collection of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. The displays are further enriched with loans from other private and public collections, including the Royal Collections in The Hague and the Teylers Museum in Haarlem (The Netherlands). 

Music Tour 
Visitors enjoy a special audio guide, existing of three routes: music, mythology and highlights. Classical music DJ Von Rosenthal produced a soundtrack for this echibition, available as a music tour in the audio set. He created a romantic atmosphere with music that supplies a deeply sensual aspect to the spectacular works of Canova, Mengs and Kauffmann, among others. In the past, Von Rosenthal has provided a very well reviewed soundtrack for the exhibition Spanish Masters from the Hermitage in 2016. The audioguide is included in the entrance ticket.  

Publications 
Three special publications appear at this exhibition. The richly illustrated catalogue includes contributions from curators and authors Thera Coppens, Eric Moormann and Bernard Woelderink. Dutch and English. 

In addition, well-known Dutch author Arnon Grunberg wrote a short story entitled Angst voor het naakt (Fear the nude), which is published in a small, beautifully bound edition. Dutch only. 

A special notebook is published as well: Couture for Canova, for which six very different Dutch fashion designers have dressed Canova's sculpture of Hebe. The result is a colourful collection of designs for the goddess.

Anton Raphael Mengs, The Judgement of Paris, c. 1757© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Anton Raphael Mengs, Parnassus, after 1761© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Anton Raphael Mengs, Perseus and Andromeda, 1778© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Pompeo Batoni, Allegory of Voluptuousness, 1747© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Angelica Kauffmann, Virgil reading the Aeneid to Octavia and Augustus, 1788© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Pierre Jacques Volaire, Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, c. 1771© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Hubert Robert, Palace Entrance with a Portico and Caryatids, 1800© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Giovanni Paolo Panini, Sybil speaking amidst Roman Ruins, with the Apollo Belvedere, 1740–50© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Jacob Philipp Hackert, Maecenas’ Villa and the Waterfalls at Tivoli, 1783© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Angelica Kauffmann, Self-portrait, c. 1787© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

A rare imperial transparent olive-green glass mallet vase, Jiaqing incised four-character mark within a square and of the period

June 18, 2018, 8:38 am

≫ Next: A rare imperial opaque white glass vase, Qianlong engraved four-character mark within double-square and of the period (1736-1795

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Lot 3792. A rare imperial transparent olive-green glass mallet vase, Jiaqing incised four-character mark within a square and of the period (1796-1820); 7 1/4 in. (18.4 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 350,000 - HKD 500,000. Price Realized HKD 740,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

The domed body is raised on a thick, heavy flattened base and surmounted by a tall cylindrical neck ending in a gently rounded lipped rim, the transparent glass of an olive green tone with a slight yellow tinge, box.

Note: A Jiaqing marked translucent glass vase of this form and very similar colour, identified as tea-colour, in the Palace Museum Beijing, is illustrated by Zhang Rong (ed.), Luster of Autumn Water, Glass of the Qing Imperial Workshop, Forbidden City Publishing House, 2005, no. 157, where the authors explain that it is difficult to distinguish pieces made in the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns, without the help of the reign marks, as the quality and tradition remains the same. 

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

A rare imperial opaque white glass vase, Qianlong engraved four-character mark within double-square and of the period (1736-1795

June 18, 2018, 8:47 am

≫ Next: An unusual imperial transparent blue glass bowl, Qianlong incised four-character mark within a square and of the period (1736-17

≪ Previous: A rare imperial transparent olive-green glass mallet vase, Jiaqing incised four-character mark within a square and of the period

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Lot 3793. A rare imperial opaque white glass vase, Qianlong engraved four-character mark within double-square and of the period (1736-1795); 8 in. (17 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 350,000 - HKD 500,000. Price Realized HKD 500,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

Made in imitation of 'mutton fat' white jade with several milky-white inclusions, the domed body rising to a cylindrical neck with a lipped rim supported on a neatly cut ring foot, box.

Note: There is a long history of making glass decorative objects and vessels in imitation of nephrite dating back to the Han dynasty. A greenish-white glass hexagonal cup from the Cunliffe and Walter and Phyllis Shorenstein Collections dating to the 15th-16th century, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2911, where a Qianlong marked opaque white glass vase sold as lot 2920. A number of white glass vessels imitating jade where included in the exhibition, A Chorus of Colours: Chinese Glass from Three American Collections, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1995, and illustrated in the Catalogue, nos. 17, 18, 21, 54, 55, 57, 58 and 59 in addition to those sold from the Shorenstein Collection.  

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

An unusual imperial transparent blue glass bowl, Qianlong incised four-character mark within a square and of the period (1736-17

June 18, 2018, 9:03 am

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Lot 3795. An unusual imperial transparent blue glass bowl, Qianlong incised four-character mark within a square and of the period (1736-1795); 4 3/8 in. (11.1 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 150,000 - HKD 200,000. Price Realized HKD 187,500. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

With deep rounded sides raised on a neatly cut shallow ring foot, the transparent glass of deep sapphire-blue colour lightening at the rim, box.

Provenance: G. B. Warner Collection, P16.
Private Collection, Texas
Previously sold at Christie's New York, 20 September 2005, lot 48

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

An imperial transparent blue glass vase, fang gu, Qianlong incised four-character mark within a square and of the period

June 18, 2018, 9:18 am

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Lot 3796. An imperial transparent blue glass vase, fang gu, Qianlong incised four-character mark within a square and of the period (1736-1795); 9 7/8 in. (25 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 450,000 - HKD 600,000. Price Realized HKD 524,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011 

 

The vase of square section, with a flared neck with an upturned rim, rising from a splayed base and stepped bulbous waist, the translucent metal of sapphire blue tone, box.

Note: A near identical example is in the Palace Museum Beijing, is illustrated by Zhang Rong (ed.), Luster of Autumn Water, Glass of the Qing Imperial Workshop, Forbidden City Publishing House, 2005, no. 33, where the authors explain the form, inspired from bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, was shaped by molten glass blown into a mould. A second Qianlong-marked glass vase of this shape, but of deeper blue tone and with a heavily crizzled surface is in the Andrew K.F. Lee Collection, and is illustrated in Elegance and Radiance, The Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000, no. 46.

A smaller Yongzheng-marked blue glass example from the Charlotte and John Weber Collection was included in the exhibition, Clear as Crystal, Red as Flame, China Institute, New York, 1990, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 17, where a red glass Yongzheng-marked fanggu from the same collection is illustrated as no. 16 and is also on the cover. 

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

 

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A rare imperial transparent sapphire-blue glass conical bowl, Qianlong incised four-character mark within a square and of the pe

June 18, 2018, 9:29 am

≫ Next: A rare imperial imitation-realgar glass zhadou, Qianlong incised four-character mark within a square and of the period

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Lot 3797. A rare imperial transparent sapphire-blue glass conical bowl, Qianlong incised four-character mark within a square and of the period (1736-1795); 7 7/8 in. (20 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 250,000 - HKD 350,000. Price Realized HKD 400,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011 

Of a rich and attractive sapphire-blue tone, the bowl is formed with widely flared sides rising from the narrow ring foot within which the reign mark is incised, the surface slightly crizzled, box.

Note: A bowl of this size and rich colour, with a Qianlong mark, but carved with six evenly spaced triangular indentations at the rim is in the Palace Museum Beijing, and is illustrated by Zhang Rong (ed.), Luster of Autumn Water, Glass of the Qing Imperial Workshop, Forbidden City Publishing House, 2005, no. 36.

Compare also with a glass bowl of this shape and size in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, reference no. 122A-1883. 

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

A rare imperial imitation-realgar glass zhadou, Qianlong incised four-character mark within a square and of the period

June 18, 2018, 9:35 am

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Lot 3798. A rare imperial imitation-realgar glass zhadou, Qianlong incised four-character mark within a square and of the period (1736-1795); 4 1/8 in. (40 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 300,000 - HKD 400,000. Price Realized HKD 1,580,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011 

The jar with a wide spreading trumpet neck atop the compressed globular mid-section, all raised on a tall, slightly flared solid foot, the metal of a bright orange colour suffused throughout with swirls of pale green accented with reddish-orange silhouettes, box.

Note: Like other glass vessels of the Qianlong period, this vase is imitating a natural material, in this case the mineral realgar (arsenic bisulphide, xionghuang), which was an important substance in Daoist alchemical studies. As it was soft and disintegrated into a poisonous powder, imitations in glass could be safely admired and handled. A similar Qianlong marked zhadou donated by Mrs. Edward L. Brewster is in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland (no. 47.689). A mallet-shaped vase of imitation realgar, with a Qianlong mark, from the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat, was included in the exhibition, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, The Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and University of Hong Kong, 1986, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 94 and sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2009, lot 1802, together with a Qianlong-marked realgar glass dish, lot 1809; a realgar glass censer from the same collection, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2010, lot 2219. A facetted bottle vase, Qianlong mark and period, in imitation realgar from the Walter and Phyllis Shorestein Collection sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2925. 

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

An imperial opaque lemon-yellow glass facetted bottle vase, Yongzheng incised four character mark within a square and of the per

June 18, 2018, 9:46 am

≫ Next: A rare small imperial pink glass 'bubble' bowl, Qianlong engraved four-character mark within a square and of the period

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Lot 3799. An imperial opaque lemon-yellow glass facetted bottle vase, Yongzheng incised four character mark within a square and of the period (1723-1735); 5 1/8 in. (13 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 500,000 - HKD 700,000. Price Realized HKD 860,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011 

Carved with eight concave facets rising from the foot of conforming outline and continuing up the tall neck, the glass of warm yellow tone.

Provenance: An American private collection 

Note: The facetted bottle shape of this vase appears to have been popular from the Yongzheng period onward. It was made in both transparent and opaque glass, and in different colours. Two opaque yellow vases of similar shape, one with a Yongzheng mark and one with a Qianlong mark, in the Andrew K.F. Lee Collection, are illustrated in Elegance and Radiance, The Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000, nos. 15 and 18, respectively. 

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

A rare small imperial pink glass 'bubble' bowl, Qianlong engraved four-character mark within a square and of the period

June 18, 2018, 9:53 am

≫ Next: An imperial turquoise glass bottle vase, Qianlong engraved four-character mark within a square and of the period (1736-1795)

≪ Previous: An imperial opaque lemon-yellow glass facetted bottle vase, Yongzheng incised four character mark within a square and of the per

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Lot 3801. A rare small imperial pink glass 'bubble' bowl, Qianlong engraved four-character mark within a square and of the period (1736-1795); 4 1/2 in. (11.2 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 200,000 - HKD 300,000. Price Realized HKD 620,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011 

The deep bowl with steeply rounded sides, the glass of rich and even pink tone.

Provenance: An American private collection 

Note: mperial glass bowls of this shape are quite rare. Compare with a yellow glass bowl with slightly steeper sides, incised with a similar mark in the Palace Museum Beijing, illustrated by Zhang Rong (ed.), Luster of Autumn Water, Glass of the Qing Imperial Workshop, Forbidden City Publishing House, 2004, no. 10. 

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall

An imperial turquoise glass bottle vase, Qianlong engraved four-character mark within a square and of the period (1736-1795)

June 18, 2018, 10:02 am

≫ Next: A very rare imperial yellow glass vase, Yongzheng four-character mark within double-squares and of the period (1723-1735

≪ Previous: A rare small imperial pink glass 'bubble' bowl, Qianlong engraved four-character mark within a square and of the period

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Lot 3802. An imperial turquoise glass bottle vase, Qianlong engraved four-character mark within a square and of the period (1736-1795); 9 in. (23 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 400,000 - HKD 600,000. Price Realized HKD 500,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011 

With high-shouldered tapering body and tall, slightly tapering neck, the glass of opaque deep turquoise tone.

Provenance: An American private collection 

Note: A vase of this form and date of turquoise tone in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was included in the exhibition, Clear as Crystal, Red as Flame, China Institute, New York, 1990, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 33; another Qianlong-marked vase sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 April 1992, lot 971.

A similar turquoise vase of Yongzheng date from the collection of Edward T. Chow, included in the exhibition, One Man's Taste: Treasures from the Lakeside Pavilion, Collection Baur, Geneva, 1988-89, is illustrated in the Catalogue, no. G4, and was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 2 May 2005, lot 548. 

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Convention Hall