A SUPERB AND RARE BLUE AND WHITE 'DEER' VASE MARK AND PERIOD OF QIANLONG

THIS IS A PREMIUM LOT. CLIENTS WHO WISH TO BID ON PREMIUM LOTS ARE REQUESTED TO COMPLETE THE PREMIUM LOT PRE-REGISTRATION 3 WORKING DAYS PRIOR TO THE SALE.

the finely potted body rising in three elegant curves, resting on a splayed foot and tapering gracefully below a trumpet mouth, the very white porcelain superbly painted in contrasting tones of cobalt-blue with characteristic 'heaping and piling', decorated with a herd of four deer in a mountain landscape below two large pine trees by a calm rippling lake, the gnarled boughs of the pine growing from rockwork amid small shrubs and vegetation and curving up and around the vase, the doe feeding as a buck sniffs at its tail, while another approaches from behind the pine trees, the fawn gambolling above, the deer meticulously painted with spotted fur or mottled coats, the base inscribed with the six-character seal mark 

The centre of the base has been drilled with a hole of diameter approx 1.4cm when it was converted into a lamp. The hole cuts through the mark, and has an associated hairline crack which goes through the body. The hairline runs from one side of the base across to the opposite side in an 'S'-shape (the hairline does not go through the mark) and which extends vertically up the body approx 18cm. Otherwise the vase is in very excellent condition overall, with only an occasional expected surface scratch. The colours are quite close to the illustration, although the 'heaping and piling' effect is even more pronounced than the catalogue suggests.
"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."

CASTIGLIONE'S PORCELAIN CANVAS
Regina Krahl

This vase is unique in size, shape and decoration, but its most remarkable aspects are the dramatic composition and outstanding style of its cobalt-blue painting, which are otherwise known only from Imperial paintings on silk. It was the Italian Jesuit court painter Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), known in China as Lang Shining, who served under the three emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, who had developed this painting manner by combining his knowledge of the techniques of perspective and shading with the compositional elements of Chinese ink painting. The Emperors were so enchanted by his style of painting, that many of Castiglione's idiosyncratic mannerisms became accepted conventions of official court painting. As such, they were practised also by various other painters working in the Palace together with Castiglione during the Yongzheng and early Qianlong reigns and equally seem to have had a strong influence on the painter of the present vase.

The present vase almost certainly dates from the first two decades of the Qianlong reign, while Tang Ying (1682-1756) was supervisor of the Imperial kilns, since wares of that quality do not seem to have been produced after his death. To find this style of court painting on a porcelain vase decorated in underglaze-blue far from the capital Beijing, in southern Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, is nevertheless surprising and may suggest that on occasion court painters were sent to Jingdezhen to work on special commissions.

Porcelain vases of this monumental size did not form part of the regular repertoire of the Jingdezhen Imperial kilns and would have been specially commissioned, individually or in pairs, for important occasions. The present vase with its auspicious subject matter, emblematic of wishes for long life, was most likely a birthday present from or to the Qianlong Emperor.

A silk painting with a similar auspicious motif, a stag under a cypress tree, painted by Castiglione in 1751 and given by the Mongol Dalai Lama Dai-chi-pi-li-kun as tribute to the court, is in the National Palace Museum; see Collected Works of Giuseppe Castiglione, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1983, pl.13, where the painting is qualified as a gift to the Qianlong Emperor, and New Visions at the Ch'ing Court. Giuseppe Castiglione and Western-Style Trends, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2007, pl.17, where it is suggested that it may have been intended as a gift for the Empress Dowager, who celebrated her sixtieth birthday that year.

The theatrical composition of the landscape painting with a pair of large trees growing in the foreground, framing the tableau and setting the scene for the 'action' that occurs further back, is characteristic of the best paintings by Castiglione, such as the monumental handscroll A Hundred Steeds (illustrated ibid. pl.14). This scroll, which is an early example of Castiglione's Chinese paintings, shows a herd of horses being taken to pasture. The landscape setting is framed by two clumps of outsized pine trees in the foreground, their knotted branches entwined in exaggerated fashion (fig.1), their bark wildly textured, their roots partly exposed.  Compare also the treatment of the trunks in Activities of the Twelve Months (illustrated ibid. pl.29) with a cleft extending from the root upwards (fig.2).  This feature was turned virtually into a formula for indicating the age of pine trees in Qianlong court painting, and is similarly employed on the present vase (fig.3). Castiglione's eccentric rendering of outdoor ground, like an artificial scenery, dabbed and dotted with clumps of grass and with the animals' hooves hardly touching the ground, as seen in his painting Auspicious Roe Deer (illustrated ibid. pl.17), is also directly echoed on this vase (fig.4). Finally, the naturalistic rendering of the deer, which are captured in different unassuming poses, is reminiscent of Castiglione's masterful invention of a hundred different poses for his steeds.