Description
Description: Chinese porcelain jar decorated with the “Guo Ziyi’s birthday party”, a motif encountered on porcelain, paintings, lacquers. The scene is full of figures, well painted in famille rose palette, in typical Yongzheng style.
Dating: 18th century, Yongzheng period
Size: 24 cm high
Provenance: Antiquarian market.
References: A pair of big vases (129 cm high) with this motif are in the Gallery of Palazzo Bianco, Genova, and illustrated at pages 230 and 231 of “Viaggio in Occidente – Porcellane Orientali nelle civiche collezioni Genovesi”, by Laura Zenone Padula, although the scene is not identified on the book.
Notes: From Wikipedia: “Guo Ziyi (697 – July 9, 781), posthumously Prince Zhōngwǔ of Fényáng was the Tang dynasty general who ended the An Lushan Rebellion and participated in expeditions against the Uyghur Khaganate and Tibetan Empire. He was regarded as one of the most powerful Tang generals before and after the Anshi Rebellion. After his death he was deified in Chinese folk religion as the God of Wealth and Happiness.” Wikipedia has a long page about Guo Ziyi, relating is life, military campaigns, family, etc:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guo_Ziyi
He had many sons and sons in law who were high ranking officials at Court. One son was even married to an imperial princess who refused to join the birthday celebration and to pay respect to her father in law; this story became the plot of a famous drama. This may be the reason for having the “Guo Ziyi’s birthday party” become one of the motifs represented in Chinese Art.
Note about the Hu (ritual baton). For those who does not know it, the Hu is the device carried by some of the figures of the scene, which looks like an Elephant’ tusk. A hu (Chinese: 笏; pinyin: hù) is a flat scepter originally used as narrow tablets for recording notes and orders. They were historically used by officials in court to record significant orders and instructions by the emperors. From the Jin dynasty onwards, following the increased proliferation of paper, the hu became a ceremonial instrument, hold with the broad end down and the narrow end up. It became customary for officials to shield their mouths with their hu when speaking to the emperor. A hu can be made of different material according to the holder’s rank: sovereigns used jade, nobles used ivory, and court officials used bamboo. The hu fell out of use in the Imperial Court system during the Qing dynasty.
In the scene depicted on this jar, we can see some Hu scattered on the ground around the boys. That means that the small grandsons were even allowed to play with the wooden hu tablets, which testimony for the joyous mood of the celebration.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.