Diameter: 5 1/4 inches, 13.2 cm
Height: 2 inches, 5 cm

26-lacquer-box

Lacquer box with “Seven Sages in the Bamboo Grove”

China, Jiajing period, 1522 - 1566

A circular lacquer box, the flat cover carved with the Zhulin Qi Xian, or the “Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove”.  The sages are depicted sitting in groups of two and three in a garden with eccentrically shaped rocks, clusters of bamboo and other plants.  One sage is standing talking to a servant, and another one is seated behind a table.  Two further servants are in attendance, one is shown fanning a small stove in the foreground.  The sides of both box and cover are carved with a continuous frieze of fruits, which include lychees, pomegranate and persimmon.  The base and interior of the box are lacquered black.

The group known as the Zhulin Qi Xian, the “Seven Sages or Worthies of the Bamboo Grove’, has a long history in Chinese art.  They were a group of Chinese scholars and poets of the mid-3rd century who banded together to escape from the hypocrisy and danger of the official world to a life of drinking wine and writing verse in the country.  Their retreat was typical of the Taoist-oriented qing tan or “pure conversation” movement that advocated freedom of individual expression and hedonistic escape from everyday life. The subject is rarely found on carved lacquer; a ‘late Ming dynasty” rectangular lacquer tray depicting the Seven Sages in a bamboo forest is in the Qing Court collection at the Palace Museum in Beijing.[1]   The same collection also houses a Jiajing period box with a comparable carving of the “five veterans” on the top.[2]  The size of this box is unusual; most boxes of this period are either larger or much smaller.

Provenance:
P.D. Krolik collection
Ben Janssens Oriental Art, September 2016
Private Collection, UK

Illustrated:
Oriental Art, Winter 1967

1    Gugong Museum: Yuan Ming Qiqi (Yuan and Ming Dynasties Lacquer)- Complete Collection of Treasures Gugong, Hong Kong/China 2006, no. 193, p. 245
2    Gugong Museum, op. cit. no. 117, pp. 156 and 157

明末清初/剔红竹林七贤盒

“竹林七贤”是明清时期漆器的常见题材,其以阮籍、嵇康、山涛、刘伶、阮咸、向秀和王戎于林中饮酒并交谈的场景表现了魏晋时期读书人“弃经典而向老庄”的风尚以及明清文人对于隐士生活的向往。此盒呈圆形,直壁,子母口,上下等分。除底部仅髹黑漆外,其正面及侧面满髹肥厚红漆。正面以云气纹、锦地纹与万字纹组合为地,深雕刻“竹林七贤”聚会场景,其人物面部刻画风格统一而神情不同。人物背后的竹枝、祥云与山石互有遮挡,层次清晰分明。盒身一周则以锦地纹为地雕刻以石榴枝叶纹。