EXOTICISM FOR THE CHINESE COURT

Regina Krahl

This flask marks a poignant moment in the development of Chinese porcelain. The Yongle Emperor (r. 1403-24) had a far-sighted international outlook and rang in a cosmopolitan period. He initiated and encouraged contacts to many countries of Asia and as far west as East Africa, distributed some of China’s finest artefacts as diplomatic gifts and accepted in return whatever foreign goods might be offered. Diplomatic missions thus exchanged not only objects and materials, but also ideas and aesthetic concepts. This contact with and interest in other cultures left an indelible mark on China’s crafts, and ceramics as one of the most adaptable media handled by the imperial workshops were directly influenced.

This flask marks a poignant moment in the development of Chinese porcelain. The Yongle Emperor (r. 1403-24) had a far-sighted international outlook and […] the present porcelain flask can be considered a result of this outward-looking policy of the Yongle Emperor.

In terms of its shape as well as its design, the present porcelain flask can be considered a result of this outward-looking policy of the Yongle Emperor. Made at the Jingdezhen imperial kilns, it represents the outstanding, high qualitative standard demanded at the t.mes by the court: porcelain and glaze are extremely fine and even, the striking shape is well-proportioned and exactingly fired, the cobalt painting shows a strong blue, the brushwork is sophisticated, and the complex design harmoniously laid out.

Although both shape and decoration of this flask are clearly foreign-inspired, it is difficult to find convincingly close prototypes for either, since China’s craft.mes n never copied but absorbed and revamped foreign styles. Pottery pilgrim flasks of basically similar form, mostly without a foot, suitable for carrying on long travels, can be traced in the Middle East to the second millennium BC, but the Yongle potters probably took their immediate inspiration from nearly contemporary Middle Eastern metal vessels.

The present porcelain flask […] represents the outstanding, high qualitative standard demanded at the t.mes by the court: porcelain and glaze are extremely fine and even, the striking shape is well-proportioned and exactingly fired, the cobalt painting shows a strong blue, the brushwork is sophisticated, and the complex design harmoniously laid out.

With its moon-shaped body of oval section, locked between a circular neck and a circular foot, the present flask is most unusual in concept. The flattened shape runs counter to a Chinese potter’s typical working methods, where upright vessel forms were generally created by throwing on the wheel horizontal sections, which were then adapted, luted together and the joins so finely smoothed out on the outside that they were no longer apparent. On the present flask, where bottom and top half were also assembled horizontally, we are visually led to believe otherwise: painted vertical lines down the narrow sides, that seem to continue under the handles and lugs, create the impression of a flask composed of two vertical halves, front and back, joined together. The rudimentary domed lugs at the widest point may echo bosses on a metal example, or else are the potter’s answer to the more typical ring handles, which served for suspension on a chain or ribbon of the metal flasks, that mostly had no foot, but were unnecessary on a porcelain example with a foot. The foot itself received special treatment: turning the flask over reveals that what looks like a flared ring foot has in fact a smooth, flat unglazed base underneath, with a well hollowed-out, glazed, globular recess in the centre – a very neat detail.

The decoration of this flask is no less remarkable than its shape. A single flowering stem on each side that is bearing seven blooms, a large array of leaves, and unusual curving fronds, springs from the bottom and rhythmically scrolls in a full circle around each side, perfectly covering the available space. Although some flower-heads resemble lotus blooms, they are accompanied neither by naturalistic large dish-shaped lotus leaves, nor by the idealized pointed, jagged leaves that identifies the lotus as a Buddhist motif. Other flower-heads seen in full frontal view are more stylized and although different leaf forms occur on the scroll, they are not obviously associated with particular blooms, which therefore cannot be identified. The combination with those alien fronds makes the composition altogether fanciful. The fronds are made up of a series of individual hooked scroll elements, attached to only one side of the vein or stem, while the other side shows just the odd tendril or small leaf. Such one-sided leaf fronds or flower panicles do not seem to occur in nature.

Leaf-scroll motifs, often referred to as arabesques, are a quintessential Middle Eastern decorative feature that appears in endless variations is Islamic art and has been discussed by art historians since the nineteenth century. Related fronds have been called ‘Halbpalmetten’, or half palmettes (Alois Riegl, Stilfragen, Berlin, 1893, p. 264), and related leaf scrolls have been deemed ‘naturfern’, far from nature (Ernst Kühnel, Die Arabeske. Sinn und Wandlung eines Ornaments, Wiesbaden, 1949, p. 3). Seemingly one-sided fronds appear on Kashan tiles dated in accordance with 1262, collects ed at the British Museum, London (e.g. nos G.454, 455, 473, 475, 480, 482); and a somewhat reminiscent, free arrangement of flowers and fronds can also be seen on a Kashan tile of similar date, in Robert Hillenbrand et al., The Sarikhani collects ion. An Introduction, London n.d. [2011], pp. 60-63; but Persian tiles are most unlikely to have served as models for Chinese craft.mes n. On portable art works such as the illuminations and bindings of books, or textiles, related motifs are usually found in much more formal, strictly symmetric layouts.

Imaginative designs vaguely inspired but not representing nature are characteristic of Islamic art, where naturalistic representations were spurned. It is one of the fundamental differences between Middle Eastern and Chinese design, where a connection with nature was always important and is apparent even in freely interpreted, stylized flower motifs. It is most interesting to compare a flask of the Yongzheng period (1723-35), for which a piece like the present one must have served as inspiration; making only slight changes, the porcelain painters translated the design into a purely Chinese motif, depicting lotus blooms with lotus pods, lotus leaves and arrow-head plants, and turning the fronds into wispy fern-like water weeds (see Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji. Qinghua youlihong/The Complete collects ion of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, Shanghai, 2000, vol. 3, pl. 98) (fig. 1).

Blue-and-white pilgrim flasks can be seen in use in Persia in several Islamic miniatures; a flask with a floral design appears, for example, in a depiction of a festivity in a Safavid palace garden, from an album produced for Shah Tahmasp (r. 1524-76) between 1539 and 1543 (see Sheila R. Canby, The Golden Age of Persian Art. 1501-1722, London, 1999, pl. 36) (fig. 2), but no flasks of this form are included either among the pieces from the Savavid royal collects ion handed down at the Ardabil Shrine, Iran, or the Ottoman royal collects ion preserved at Topkapi Saray, Istanbul, Turkey. These porcelains in foreign styles were not necessarily meant for export; they seem to have been equally popular at the Chinese court, where their exotic aspect might have been deemed particularly appealing.

The Palace Museum, Beijing, holds the only known companion piece to the present flask, as well as another flask of the same shape with a different design, and several other Yongle blue-and-white vessels of Middle Eastern metal shapes painted with basically the same foreign flower scroll, almost all handed down from the Qing court collects ion. The companion piece is illustrated in Geng Baochang, op.cit., 2000, vol. 1, pl. 38; and in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming blue-and-white porcelain in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2002, vol. 1, pl. 35 (fig. 3). Four large canteens with flat unglazed back, a jug and a deep globular bowl in the Gugong, all similarly decorated, are published in Geng Baochang, op.cit., 2000, vol. 1, pls 34-37, 42, 52, as well as a similar flask with a geometric design, pl. 39. A large canteen with the same flower scroll as seen here is also in the Taipei Palace Museum, see the exhibition catalogue Shi yu xin: Mingdai Yongle huangdi de ciqi/Pleasingly Pure and Lustrous: Porcelains from the Yongle Reign (1403-1424) of the Ming Dynasty, Palace Museum, Taipei, 2017, pp. 122-5.

The Palace Museum, Beijing, holds the only known companion piece to the present flask.

John Pope has interpreted the frond design on another such vessel in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. as “vines of closely bunched rows of little leaves, buds or seed pods on only one side of the vine that look not unlike some sort of parasitic growths or even, by not too great a stretch of the imagination, like furry caterpillars” (John Pope, “An Early Porcelain in Muslim Style”, in Richard Ettinghausen, ed., Aus der Welt der Islamischen Kunst. Festschrift für Ernst Kühnel, Berlin, 1959, p. 364). The Freer Gallery also holds an albarello (jar shaped like a Western apothecary jar) with similar decoration, illustrated ibid., pl. 6 A.

Flasks of the present form with geometric design are less rare and known from several examples. That design can more directly be traced to Islamic models, for example an illustration in a Quran of 1313, see the flask sold in these rooms, 6th April 2016, lot 17, from the Pilkington collects ion (fig. 4), where the comparison is illustrated in the catalogue p. 85. This form of flask is also known with another imaginary flower design, as sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27th November 2007, lot 1664.

漢廷胡風

康蕊君

青花扁壺，見證中國瓷器發展史之重要時刻。身處國際頻繁交流之時代，永樂皇帝對於國際發展素有遠見，開啟並致力與亞洲多國之互動，最遠西至東非，賜與中國藝術品，亦得各國回禮。如此交流不僅止於禮物、物產，亦觸發思想與審美之相互影響。遂而引起的文化激盪，在中國藝術品留下不可磨滅的痕跡，其中最直接受到影響的，就是由朝廷主導的御窰瓷器。

觀其器形、紋飾，本品可謂永樂皇帝對外政策下之產物。燒造於景德鎮御窰，扁壺品質精美，釉色勻細，器形比例和諧，火候控制精確，青花發色濃豔，紋飾筆法嫻熟，布局縝密均衡。

扁壺造形與紋飾，雖見明顯外來影響，卻難以覓得相類外國雛本，遂推論中國瓷匠應非直接摹仿外來器物，而是吸收異國風格再創新。陶製扁壺，無足，用於長途跋涉旅行，可溯至西元前二千年中東一帶。永樂御窰，則應取材當代中東一代金屬器形。

青花扁壺，見證中國瓷器發展史之重要時刻。身處國際頻繁交流之時代，永樂皇帝對於國際發展素有遠見 [......] 本品可謂永樂皇帝對外政策下之產物。

壺腹扁圓，宛似滿月，上承圓頸，下接圓足，造形獨特，非比尋常。扁圓器形，異於其他陶瓷立件，無法使用中國傳統造瓷技術製作， 如拉坏、接胚、修坯等。本品上、下二部水平相接：二側窄邊雙耳底至足上，穿越花鈕，繪垂直線條，宛若以前、後二部相接。腹中側邊花鈕，應取材金屬扁壺上的鈕或是環飾，用以繫帶或鏈，金屬作例多無足，陶瓷者壺足則為必須。本品圈足外撇如環，平底無釉，足內施透明釉，細緻精美。

本品紋飾亦精彩細緻，二面皆繪單柄花藤，自底部蔓生，環繞器腹，綴七朵盛放嬌蕊，纏枝卷葉相襯，蕨狀長卷葉與花莖優雅相連，輕重錯落，宛如音韻美樂。花卉紋雖見似蓮花者，相伴葉紋無盤狀蓮葉，亦無佛教圖像之葉尖鋸齒者。其他花卉紋皆以正面繪之，襯以各式葉紋，然非寫實，難以識別品種。紋飾搭配長形蕨狀卷葉，更添繽紛，長卷葉以數個小形焰狀卷葉排列而成，僅一端與葉脈相連，另一端延伸似藤莖或嫩葉，如此單面蕨狀長卷葉與花序，似非現實中可見者。

本品 [......] 品質精美，釉色勻細，器形比例和諧，火候控制精確，青花發色濃豔，紋飾筆法嫻熟，布局縝密均衡。

卷葉紋，常稱為阿拉伯式花飾，屬中東裝飾藝術的重要元素，常見於伊斯蘭藝術中，變化樣式無窮無盡，十九世紀以來，多得藝術史學者討論研究。相類的蕨葉狀紋飾稱為「Halbpalmetten」或半棕葉紋（Alois Riegl，《Stilfragen》，柏林，1893年，頁 264），卷葉紋則稱為「naturfern」，非寫實自然植物（Ernst Kühnel，《Die Arabeske. Sinn und Wandlung eines Ornaments》，威斯巴登，1949年，頁 3）。倫敦大英博物館藏卡尚古瓷磚，紀年1262年，飾有相類單面蕨葉紋（如館藏編號 G.454、455、473、475、480、482）；另一卡尚瓷磚，綴花卉蕨葉紋飾，亦似相類，錄於 Robert Hillenbrand 等，《The Sarikhani collects ion. An Introduction》，倫敦，2011年，頁60-63；然而此類波斯花磚，似罕為中國瓷人的摹本。其他較易於攜帶之圖畫、書籍、織品等，雖亦飾有相類紋飾，多更為拘謹，且構圖對稱。

由自然萬物發想，並融合想像而生之紋飾，可謂伊斯蘭藝術之特色，並非全然寫實。此特點與中國藝術相異，因後者更為重視天人連結，如此文化差異可顯見於花卉紋飾之設計。比較一雍正朝扁壺，應以本品為雛本，僅略作修改，此處花卉紋飾以全然漢化，蓮花、蓮蓬、蓮葉、三角箭形茨菰等一應俱全，原本的蕨葉狀紋飾，已改成羽葉狀水草，見耿寶昌編，《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集：青花釉裏紅》，上海，2000年，卷3，圖版98（圖一）。

現知相類唯一與本品相類扁壺，藏於北京故宮博物院。

波斯細密畫中偶見青花扁壺，如塔赫馬斯普一世（在位1524-76年）於1539-1543年間詔命製作一冊，描繪薩法維宮殿花園中的盛宴，見 Sheila R. Canby，《The Golden Age of Persian Art. 1501-1722》，倫敦，1999年，圖版 36（圖二）。但阿爾達比勒、伊朗或伊斯坦堡托卡比宮舊藏，皆不見相類器形作例。可推知，此類瓷器雖富西域風格，卻非用以出口，而盛行於中國朝廷，其異國造形與紋飾特色，尤其廣得喜愛。

現知相類唯一與本品相類扁壺，藏於北京故宮博物院，此外清宮舊藏中還有一例紋飾不同之扁壺，與其他永樂青花瓷，器形傚擬中東金屬器，綴以異國風格的纏枝花卉紋。前述扁壺刊於耿寶昌，前述出處，2000年，卷1，圖版38；及耿寶昌編，《故宮博物院藏明初青花瓷》，北京，2002年，卷1，圖版35（圖三）。北京故宮藏四件大扁壺，背無釉，一水罐以及一件深腹圓盌，紋飾相類，皆錄於耿寶昌，前述出處，2000年，卷1，圖版34-37、42、52，以及一件幾何紋扁壺，圖版39。台北故宮博物院藏一件大扁壺，展出於《適於心：明代永樂皇帝的瓷器》，故宮博物院，台北，2017年，頁122-5。

璞博於專文中述及，華盛頓特區佛瑞爾藝術館藏品上相類蕨葉式紋「藤蔓上密佈葉芽、花苞、子莢，但僅於單側，仿似寄生植物，略想像延伸，又似毛絨若蟲」（璞博，〈An Early Porcelain in Muslim Style〉，Richard Ettinghausen 編，《Aus der Welt der Islamischen Kunst. Festschrift für Ernst Kühnel》，柏林，1959年，頁364）。佛瑞爾藝術館藏一件青花藥罐，紋飾與本品相近，刊於，同上，圖版 6A。

本品器形多見幾何紋飾例，或與伊斯蘭摹本更直接相關，如1313年版本《可蘭經》插圖，參考琵金頓舊藏一例，售於2016年4月6日香港蘇富比，編號17（圖四），圖錄中並刊載相類作例，頁85。亦見相異之花卉紋扁壺，如香港佳士得，2007年11月27日，編號1664。