A MAGNIFICIENT AND RARE WUCAI 'FISH' JAR MARK AND PERIOD OF JIAJING

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of broad shouldered form, the stoutly potted body rising to a short neck with lipped rim, painted in vivid iron red and wucai enamels with a frieze showing a lotus pond ablaze with large and small golden carp, their elongated bodies in yellowish-orange enamel, the scales, barbels, lateral and dorsal fins all finely outlined and detailed in rich iron red, their large eyes picked out in black, the swimming fish captured in vivid poses, one large carp plunging to a bed of low weeds, a smaller one leaping up to a scatter of floating blossoms with tail curved as in motion, and others slipping with ease amidst rising lotus blossoms with bright yellow and iron-red petals and their green pads, encompassed by feathery and spiky undulating grasses in purplish underglaze blue and iron-red, yellow and green enamels, the green heightened with outlines and detailing in black, beneath iron-red and green clusters of waterweeds, all between a collar of multi-coloured petal lappets enclosing flaming motifs below the neck, and a band of boldly outlined, overlapping leaf tips issuing from the base, the wedge-shaped footring fired orange-brown and enclosing a borderless six-character mark in underglaze blue

Sotheby's New York, 20th March 1976, lot 130.
Eskenazi Ltd., London.
Kochukyo, Tokyo.
Collection of the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo.

Idemitsu Bijutsukan: Jū shūnen kinen zuroku/Special Exhibition Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Idemitsu Collection, Idemitsu Art Gallery, Tokyo, 1976, col. pl. 127.
Gen Min no tōji [Yuan and Ming ceramics], Idemitsu Art Gallery, Tokyo, 1977, cat. no. 76.
Idemitsu Bijutsukan: Kaikan jūgo shūnen kinen ten zuroku/The 15th Anniversary Catalogue, Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 1981, col. pl. 808.
Idemitsu Bijutsukan: Kaikan nijū shūnen kinen meihin ten/The 20th Anniversary Catalogue, Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 1986, col. pl. 148.

Idemitsu Bijutsukan zōhin zuroku. Chūgoku tōji/Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, col. pl. 192.

There is a 'Y'-shaped hairline of 20 cm extending from the base and up the side located at approx. one o'clock from the 'da' character on the mark. The bottom of the jar has a 1.5 cm C-shaped firing crack with an associated body line under the glaze of approx. 5 cm. extending towards the character 'zhi'. There are also two other short body lines beneath the glaze to the base, each of approx. 1.5 cm at 9 and 10 o'clock. There is a firing hairline to the interior along the luting line at the belly of the body, shown on the exterior as a stained body line under the glaze across one quarter of the jar (visible on p. 37). There is a slight warp top the jar. The enamels are quite well preserved and colors quite vibrant.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Imperial Dreams of a Carefree Life
Regina Krahl

Fish under water, darting about among densely growing water plants have been a popular theme of ink painters at least since the Song dynasty (960-1279), when several artists specialized in paintings of fish. It is one of those nature subjects which requires the artist to sharpen his observation directly from nature and allows him to display his mastery in the representation of lively movement.

Apart from their plain function as challenging nature studies, fish paintings carried a symbolic message that would have been immediately obvious to all educated observers. Ever since the compilation of Zhuangzi, a text with origins going back to the late 5^th century BC, fish were a frequent subject of allegories. One of the most popular passages in this text is the witty exchange between the Daoist master and a Confucian scholar about the pleasures of fishes:

… Chuang Tzu [Zhuangzi] said, “See how the minnows come out and dart around where they please! That’s what fish really enjoy!”

Hui Tzu [Huizi] said, “You’re not a fish – how do you know what fish enjoy?”

Chuang Tzu said, “You’re not I, so how do you know I don’t know what fish enjoy?”

Hui Tzu said, “I’m not you, so I certainly don’t know what you know. On the other hand, you’re certainly not a fish – so that still proves you don’t know what fish enjoy!”

Chuang Tzu said, “Let’s go back to your original question, please. You asked me how I know what fish enjoy – so you already knew I knew it when you asked the question. I know it by standing here beside the Hao.” ¹

Fish as an image of freedom from restraints thus played an important part in Daoist thought since earliest times. It is certainly no coincidence that one of the earliest and most important artists working in this genre, Liu Cai, was active during the reign of Emperor Huizong (r. 1101-1125), who was not only one of China’s greatest connoisseurs and patrons of the arts, but also one it is most fervent Daoist rulers. That the Daoist message was intentional already with these paintings is documented by a colophon on a handscroll dated in accordance with 1291 by Zhou Dongqing, entitled The Pleasures of Fish, which reads ²

Not being fish, how do we know their happiness?

We can only take an ideal and make it into a painting.

To probe the subtleties of the ordinary,

We must describe the indescribable.

It is not surprising that Daoist motifs defined the direction for the craftsmen at the imperial porcelain kilns at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province as well as other imperial workshops as soon as the court once more manifested Daoist inclinations. The Jiajing Emperor (r. 1522-1566) did not go down in history as a major statesman, nor a particular art lover, but is renowned as a fervent patron of Daoist causes, a staunch believer in the search for fertility and immortality drugs and an admirer of magical practices performed by Daoist adepts. He is known to have spared no expenses for constructions and ceremonies connected with Daoist worship, where pearls, ambergris and gold were employed in lavish profusion.

Jiajing works of art are brimming with Daoist imagery. Most common, however, are auspicious motifs intended to protect the Emperor against the vicissitudes of fortune. We find on Jiajing imperial porcelains in particular motifs thought to be life-prolonging or to ascertain male offspring. The fish-and-waterplant motif has similarly been interpreted as a combination of auspicious symbols in the exhibition catalogue Power and Glory: Court Arts of China’s Ming Dynasty, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 2008, p. 210, where in connection with an ink painting of this subject by Miu Fu (active 1426-35) it is explained that the fish represent phallic symbols, that the Chinese word for ‘fish’ is a homophone for ‘abundance’ or ‘profit’, the arrowroots imply compassion and benevolence, and the water lily symbolizes peace and safety.

In seeking to protect against earthbound fate, such auspicious symbolism, which is ubiquitous in Chinese art, is nevertheless a reminder of the vagaries and uncertainties of life that concerned emperors in the same way as commoners, and which Daoist practitioners sought to control. A different and more important aspect of the fish motif, as seen on the present jar, however, seems to be its much more positive, idealized message. Rather than evoking potential doom and eternal worries, the fish are symbols of the happy, carefree life in tune with nature that the Daoists proposed, and which for the most part was far from the reality experienced by the Chinese emperor. As such the design is most remarkable and highly noteworthy for a piece of imperial Chinese porcelain, and its free-spirited, joyful notion is exceptional among Chinese imperial works of art.

The porcelain painters at Jingdezhen had ample models for painting animated scenes of fresh-water fish swimming among water plants. The free composition and vivid execution of the design on this and similar jars beautifully echo the merry spirit of its message. The wucai (‘five colour’) palette used for its depiction is a rare version specific to the Jiajing reign that is particularly complex. The available range of ‘five colours’, consisting of underglaze blue and overglaze red, yellow, green and aubergine, was here enlarged further by a sixth: superimposing red on yellow enamel, which required an additional firing, resulted in a rich golden-orange tone ideally suited to render the colour of golden carp, among the most coveted species of fish in China. This complicated wucai style was developed in the Jiajing period and seems to be restricted to that reign, when it was equally used on other smaller jars and dishes, none of which can compare, however, with the magnificence of large jars such as the present example.

Similar Jiajing fish jars are preserved, for example, in the Shanghai Museum (two jars, see Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan zangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections : A Series of Monographs. Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pls. 3-88 and 3-89) and in a large number of Japanese museum collections, e.g. the Hakutsuru Art Museum, Kobe (a pair); the Hakone Museum of Art; the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo; the Umezawa Kinenkan, Tokyo; the Fukuoka Art Museum; the Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art; the Matsunaga Kinenkan, Odawara; the Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum; and one from the Toguri Museum of Art, Tokyo, was sold in our London rooms 9^th June 2004, lot 30. Others are illustrated in R. L. Hobson, The Wares of the Ming Dynasty, London, 1923, pl. 26, fig. 1, from the collection of the Comtesse de Beauchamp; one with a 20^th-century replacement cover made by a renowned Japanese potter was included in the exhibition Two Rare Chinese Porcelain Fish Jars of the 14^th and 16^th Centuries, Eskenazi, London, 2002, no. 2; two, formerly in the collection of Henry James and later the Harvard Art Museum were sold at Christie’s New York, 19^th March 2009, lots 719 and 721; and one was sold in our London rooms 13^th June 1989, lot 238 and again 7^th December 1993, lot 235.

Jiajing wucai fish jars retaining their covers are preserved, for example, in the Palace Museum, Beijing (The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 15); the National Museum of China, Beijing (a piece excavated in Chaoyang district, Beijing, see Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu/Studies on the Collections of the National Museum of China. Ciqi juan [Porcelain section]: Mingdai [Ming dynasty], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 84); the Tianjin Municipal Art Museum (Tianjin Shi Yishu Bowuguan cang ci/Porcelains from the Tianjin Municipal Museum, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 116); and an example formerly in the collection of Henry Walters and later the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, was recently sold in our New York rooms, 12^th September 2012, lot 262.

¹ Quoted after Burton Watson, transl., The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1970, pp. 188f.

² The scroll is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the inscription quoted after Wen Fong, Beyond Representation. Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8^th – 14^th Century, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, cat. no. 380.