A RARE BAMBOO 'ODE TO THE RED CLIFF' BRUSHPOT, BITONG, 17TH CENTURY

拍品描述

A RARE BAMBOO 'ODE TO THE RED CLIFF' BRUSHPOT, BITONG, 17TH CENTURY Expert’s note: The inscription ‘Meicun’ should not be understood as the signature of the carver, but rather as a reference to Wu Weiye (1609–1672), the celebrated poet, calligrapher, and painter who was widely known by this sobriquet. In the present context, the inscription most likely identifies the person for whom the brushpot was made or to whom it was associated, and therefore indicates Wu Weiye as its original owner or intended recipient. A native of Taicang, Jiangsu, with the courtesy name Jungong, Wu placed second in the palace examinations of 1631 and was appointed a compiler at the Hanlin Academy. Following the fall of the Ming, he reluctantly entered Qing service and eventually became Chancellor of the Imperial Academy. Together with Qian Qianyi and Gong Dingzi, he was acclaimed as one of the Three Masters of Jiangzuo and was particularly celebrated for the seven-character narrative verse that became known as the ‘Meicun style’. He was also accomplished in painting and calligraphy; his hanging scroll Danqing Baofa is preserved in the Shanghai Museum. Significantly, Wu Weiye is not recorded as a bamboo carver, nor are any brushpots known to have been carved by him. This further supports the interpretation of ‘Meicun’ on the present vessel as a dedicatory or associative inscription rather than an artist’s signature. For a Qianlong-period zitan brushpot bearing a lengthy imperial poem referring to Wu Meicun, see the example from the Ji Zhen Zhai Collection, exhibited in Treasures of the Chinese Scholar, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, 1998–1999, and published in the catalogue, pp. 40-41. The same brushpot is also illustrated by Littleton & Hennessy. China. The cylindrical pot superbly carved in sunken relief from a thick-walled section of bamboo with a continuous, dramatically conceived depiction of the celebrated Ode to the Red Cliff: A small boat carrying the poet Su Shi and his companions navigates the coursing waters beneath monumental cliffs, surrounded by jagged rocks, layered peaks, billowing clouds, and a gnarled pine clinging precariously to the mountainside. The composition is worked through markedly varying planes of relief: the boat, pine, and foreground rocks are boldly modeled and deeply undercut, while the distant mountains, clouds, and eddying currents recede into delicately incised passages. The natural vertical grain of the bamboo is ingeniously incorporated into the scene, descending across the landscape like sheets of rain and heightening its dramatic atmosphere. The result is exceptionally painterly, translating the shifting perspectives, rhythmic brushwork, and atmospheric expansiveness of a landscape scroll into sculptural form as the celebrated literary scene unfolds around the curved surface of the vessel. Dimensions: Height 15.4 cm Few literary works have shaped the imagery of the Chinese scholar’s studio as profoundly as Su Shi’s celebrated Odes to the Red Cliff. Written in 1082 during the poet’s exile at Huangzhou, the two prose poems recount excursions to a place associated in the literary imagination with Cao Cao and the historic Battle of Red Cliffs. In the better-known first ode, Su Shi and his companions drift beneath the autumn moon, drinking wine, reciting poetry, and listening to the melancholy notes of a flute. The grandeur of the landscape and memories of vanished heroes prompt a meditation on the brevity of human existence: dynasties fall and renowned men disappear, while the river continues to flow and the moon endlessly waxes and wanes. Su Shi ultimately finds consolation in the understanding that nature embodies both perpetual change and continuity, offering its beauty freely to all who are capable of appreciating it. The subject consequently became a canonical theme in Chinese painting and the decorative arts, encapsulating ideals central to literati culture – friendship, poetry, music, historical reflection, and spiritual resilience in the face of political adversity. It was especially appropriate for objects intended for the scholar’s desk, where the image of Su Shi could serve as both literary reference and model of cultivated fortitude. Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 June 2015, lot 2809 Price: HKD 375,000 or approx. EUR 51,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, manner of carving, and subject. Note the size (13.4 cm).

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