A Large Chinese Famille-Verte 'Figural' Baluster Jar and Cover, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period

Elaborately enameled with scenes of gentlemen amidst landscapes engaged in various leisurely activities within lobed panels, the present jar depicts the idyllic ideals of the literati lifestyle. Most scenes likely refer to specific stories that resonated with the literati. Retiring, or retreating, to the rural countryside as a respite from bureaucratic officialdom was an ideal for many scholar-officials, and is a pervasive theme in the decoration on this jar. Here, they are pictured conversing, drinking tea, seated within pavilions, fishing, or enjoying the mountainous landscape. In one panel, four men observe darting fish in a river, recalling Zhuangzi's famous philosophical debate on the happiness of fish and the limits of human knowledge. 

A jar of the same type, with some variation in the vignettes, was sold at Christie's New York, September 15, 2009, lot 379. Compare another similar jar and cover, also with a scene of two men watching fish, in the Royal Collection, published in John Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, vol. 1, London, 2016, pl. 459.