Name: WHITE Digital Agency
Price range: $

All artworks

Two Landscape Models, From a Set of Six, China, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722)

Exhibited by Jorge Welsh Works of Art

Material Famille Verte on Biscuit

Dimensions 43 x 25 cm

Place of Creation China

Status Vetted

About the Work

A rare set of six Chinese biscuit landscape models, Kangxi (1662-1722), painted in green, yellow, and brown famille verte enamels. The two landscapes displayed in the image are crafted as a towering, pierced brown rockery adorned with scattered pine trees and a central walled building at its base. Smaller pavilions, gates, and a pagoda grace the upper sections, all interconnected by winding stairways. The carved bases remain unglazed, enhancing the textural contrast of these remarkable works.

Mountain landscapes such as these were exported to Europe, most probably as curiosities. They may have been used for interior decoration, perhaps to invoke the idea of an outside garden within the confines of an indoor setting. Mountains and mountain landscapes have been of great importance in Chinese culture since the Zhou dynasty (1050-221 BC), as they were considered to be the manifestation of qi or the ‘life force of the universe.’ The home of the spirits and gods, they were the focus of religious activities.

Show moreless

Literature

BARTHOLOMEW, Terese Tse, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, San Francisco, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2006

CHEN, Xiejun (ed.), Shanghai Museum, Hong Kong, Scala Publishers, 2007

CURTIS, Julia B., Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century. Landscapes,
Scholars’ Motifs and Narratives, exhibition catalogue, New York, China Institute
Gallery, 1995

HOBSON, R. L., The Catalogue of the George Eumorfopoulos Collection of Chinese, Corean and Persian Pottery and Porcelain, vols. IV and V, London, Ernest Benn Ltd., 1927

JÖRG, Christiaan J. A., in collaboration with Jan van CAMPEN, Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The Ming and Qing dynasties,
London, Philip Wilson, in association with the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1997

JÖRG, Christiaan J. A., Oriental Porcelain in the Netherlands. Four Museum
Collections, exhibition catalogue, Groningen, Groninger Museum, 2003

JORGE WELSH (ed.), Biscuit: Refined Chinese Famille Verte Wares, exhibition
catalogue, London/Lisbon, Jorge Welsh Books, 2012

KERR, Rose and MENGONI, Luisa E., Chinese Export Ceramics, London, Victoria
and Albert Museum, 2011

KRAHL, Regina, The Anthony de Rothschild Collection of Chinese Ceramics, 2 vols, London, Eranda Foundation, 1996

ROSENTHAL, Evelyn (ed.), A Culture Revealed: Kangxi-Era Chinese Porcelain from
the Jie Rui Tang Collection, Bruges, Jieruitang Publishing, 2017

SARGENT, William R., The Copeland Collection. Chinese and Japanese Ceramic
Figures, Salem, The Peabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, 1991

SARGENT, William R., Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody
Essex Museum, Salem, The Peabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, 2012

SETTERWALL, Åke, FOGELMARCK, Stig and GYLLESNSVÄRD, Bo, The
Chinese Pavilion at Drottningholm, Malmo, Allhem, 1974