Chinese Art: Scrolling Peonies Jar Blue and White Yuan Dynasty

DESCRIPTION
superbly potted and fired with outstanding glaze, the wide-shouldered baluster body tapering to the foot, boldly and confidently painted in a spacious and dynamic composition of masterful balance in carefully controlled cobalt-blue with a broad band of six scrolling peonies seen from the front, the side and the back, each bloom finely articulated with petals and leaves lightly incised to allow for subtle veining, the lobed-tipped petals clustered in 'yin-yang' form at the centers and the one seen from the back revealing the six-lobed calyx, all borne on a continuous undulating leafy stem with attendant offshoot buds, above a narrow register of classic scroll, the shoulders encircled by a lotus meander border exhibiting three types of lotus blooms, two formalized including stamens of projecting trefoil barbs and one open bloom with 'yin-yang' rosette, borne on a single undulating stem nearing stylized barbed and lobed leaves, all between a vigorously painted band of tumbling waves collaring the short upright neck with rolled lip and large upright lappets enclosing cloud-like trefoils and ring motifs skirting the foot, the different registers of the decoration separated by double-line borders, the cobalt-blue of intensely vibrant purple-blue tone with pronounced 'heaping and piling' effect accentuating the painterly brushstrokes against the faintly bluish white glaze, the base left unglazed to reveal the fine porcellanous body with remnant traces of glaze caught against the knife-cut grooves of the foot and the slightly countersunk center
PROVENANCE
Sotheby's London, 7th June 1988, lot 212.
Christie's Hong Kong, 24th October 1993, lot 716.
CATALOGUE NOTE
In its material, form and design, this majestic jar is the classic representation of blue-and-white porcelain from the Yuan dynasty. The Yuan (1279-1368) was a revolutionary period for China's ceramic production, when the aesthetic tradition of small, unobtrusive, and mostly monochromatic stonewares changed to an impressive style of monumental porcelains with strong ornamentation. These Chinese porcelains, unmatched in the world in quality and irresistable in their decorative appeal, became status symbols at the courts throughout Asia and their color scheme and repertoire of motifs were copied by potters from Vietnam to Iran. (fig. 1)

Compared to the previous Song (960-1279) and Jin (1115-1234) dynasties, shapes now changed in proportion and became larger; the porcelain body and glaze became whiter and more neutral, making it an ideal painting ground; and the decoration underwent a fundamental change, as painted designs in a bright color represented a completely new departure for Chinese ceramics.

The present jar represents the zenith of the gradual alteration in proportions of the shape known as guan, in which the neck became more distinctive and straight, and the sides acquired a slight outward flare at the base. The swelling of the broad shoulders from the foot creates a profile that is expansive, stable and balanced, drawing the eye upwards and back down again; from the major decorative band to the minor bands at the foot and neck in dynamic contrast without tedium. The banded decoration combines the five most characteristic elements of Yuan porcelain design - peony scroll, lotus scroll, waves, classic scroll and petal-panels or lappets. Indeed, close observation of the 'heaping and piling' and the tonal graduation of the cobalt allows us to observe the calligraphic brushwork of the anonymous potter-artist; and to marvel not only at the confident sweeping lines and tensile curlicues, but also at the pregnant pauses of the cobalt-laden brush-tip, its rests, renewals and gentle washes.

Although this early style of porcelain painted in underglaze cobalt-blue has become well known through numerous publications, actual surviving examples are extremely rare. Only three closely related examples to the present jar are recorded, every one of them repeatedly published. Two are in institutions in China, namely the Shanghai Museum (fig. 2) and the Shanxi Provincial Museum, and the third is in a Japanese private collection (fig.4). For the Shanghai jar see, for example, Zhongguo taoci quanji, vol.11, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 158; for the Shanxi jar, Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan: Taoci juan, Hong Kong 1993, p. 332, no. 551; and for the piece in Japan, So Gen no bijutsu, Tokyo, 1980, pl. 198. As such, the present jar appears to be the only one of this exact type to have entered the open market.

A fourth jar of very similar design, but with a composite flower scroll on the shoulder, from the Charles A. Dana collection, was sold in these rooms, 20th September 2000, lot 101 (fig. 5); and one with an additional cash-diaper border below the neck but lacking the classic scroll border, was sold Sotheby Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 15th March 1983, lot 2003.

Related jars, with a flower-scroll (or 'blackberry-lily' scroll) border at the neck, are often slightly less complex in execution, lacking the incised detail which structures the peony petals and leaves, and may be slightly later in date. There appear to be numerous examples of these less painterly and refined versions, compare, for example, a jar excavated at Baotou, Inner Mongolia, published in Zhongguo taoci quanji, op.cit., pl.157; and another from the Jingguantang collection included in the exhibition Art Treasures from Shanghai and Hong Kong, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1997, no. 43, and sold at Christie's New York, 20th March 1997, lot 69.

All the motifs on the present jar are to be found within the banded decoration of the famous pair of temple vases in the Percival David Foundation, London, bearing single dragons in confronting poses within their major bands, and most importantly, painted inscriptions commemorating the dedication of these vases to a Daoist temple in Yushan district, Jiangxi province, in the eleventh year of the Zhizheng reign (equivalent to 1351 AD). These vases form the key to resolving the timeline for the rapid advance in porcelain technology in the 14th century, and are illustrated numerous times, for example in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol.13, Tokyo, 1981, pls.49-51, and also Carswell, Blue and White. Chinese Porcelain around the World, London, 2000, pl.40. It is important to note therefore that the motif of scrolling flowers turning to present all views in succession to the viewer must have been developed in the first half of the 14th century, as all the motifs: waves, peony scroll, lotus scroll, and petal lappets, already display full formalization on the David vases. The present jar bears designs so closely similar to the David vases that it too must arguably belong to a mid-14th century date.

The idea of successive turning flowers on a scrolling stem, in which the body of the vessel is treated as a Chinese handscroll unfolding in spatial and temporal progression, is incredibly sophisticated. The crowded banded designs of Yuan chargers and open forms which derive their motifs from the tastes of Central Asian markets, almost in horror vacui and frequently disguising the white porcelain with reserved white-on-blue decor, seems to progressively become sinicized and to treat the white porcelain ground as a more open painted space. This important transition of correlating cobalt on porcelain to ink on paper appears to occur around the second quarter of the 14th century, and may also represent the supply of blue and white porcelain to different markets simultaneously and in differing styles, viz. more crowded banded designs for Central Asia and more open painterly designs for the domestic market, see Carswell, ibid., pp.17. Forms also became larger to suit the ruling Mongol practice of communal feasting, hence the prevalence of large platters, wine storage jars and water basins. Furthermore, the Islamic proscription, or to more accurately term at this early date a preference, against representations of humans and animals in the secular decorative arts, would arguably have made the present jar, with its lush vegetal decor, more generally marketable than those of Chinese figural scenes or dragons; hence the prevalence of floral-scroll designs among extant jars, although as discussed earlier, those jars of greatest quality and prestige are few and far between.

The bold peony scroll present on this lot is also repeated on vessels of other forms, as well as in other mediums. All the motifs are present on a broad spindle-form or ovoid form guan with narrow cupped mouth, and on a pair of baluster meiping bottles, in the collections of the Ottoman sultans, now preserved in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, see Carswell, ibid., pls.23 and 25, or Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol.II, London, 1986, nos.581 and 583, pp.408-9, col.pls. Although found within the Ottoman empire, it appears that their matching counterparts within China were similarly treasured; similar guan and meiping vessels were excavated in tombs datable to 1395 in Anhui province and 1439 in Jiangsu province respectively, representing a widespread practice of prizing and hoarding these vessels long after their mid-14th century creation. Compare also similar guan and meiping vessels, in the Chang Foundation, Taiwan, illustrated Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, pls.72 and 73.

A 14th century meiping vase from the Ataka Collection (fig. 5), now in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, bearing a similar large peony scroll below a lotus scroll collaring the shoulder, is illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 13, Tokyo, 1981, no. 58, clearly displaying the treatment of the vessel as a Chinese painted handscroll. But the three-dimensional successive turns is an innovation that was probably a development of close observation within motifs of scrolling flowers in carved lacquer and embroidered silks and damasks. Yuan cinnabar lacquers are frequently carved with flowers and leaves overlapping and folding over to display their undersides; see a 14th century lacquer box, signed Zhang Cheng, carved with lotus, peony, chrysanthemum, camellia and rose, illustrated by Peter Lam, in 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Oriental Ceramic Society, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 34 (fig. 6.) This appears to have been a conceit restricted to the 14th century, since the decor of scrolling flowers in the Song and Ming dynasties represent the flowers seen only in profile and, more rarely, overhead within both the lacquer and the ceramic traditions. Compare a range of rare Song and Yuan lacquers, exhibited Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo, The Colors and Forms of Song and Yuan China: Featuring Lacquerwares, Ceramics and Metalwares, Tokyo, 2004, nos. 94-5, 110-2 and 115-6.

The decoration also carries into textiles, which may actually have been the primary source for the peony motif on ceramics. A piece of damask (fig.7) excavated from the tomb of Qian Yu in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, datable to 1320 AD, illustrates the turning of the peony flower-heads, a style apparently carried over from Song textiles, see Feng Zhao, Treasures in Silk, Hangzhou, 1999, no. 07.09., where pp.230, fig.07.09a, shows pomegranate-heart lotus identical to those on the collar of the present jar. The relative flattening and stylisation required to transfer floral designs into woven patterns in kesi tapestry or damasks shows clear correlation to those on the present jar. Compare a Northern Song twill damask with similar peonies, exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, When Silk was Gold. Central Asian and Chinese Textiles, New York, 1997, cat.no.11, and a two Northern Song kesi pieces with similar lotus and further peonies, one in the Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang, pp.56, fig.13, and the other in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, pp.58, fig.16. Another textile with related peonies on a dense leafy scroll (fig.8) in a rare Liao samite weave but carbon-dated to within the Yuan Dynasty, is illustrated Feng, op.cit., no.07.04, in which the dynamism and three-dimensional effect of repeating flower-heads presages that executed so masterfully on the present vase.