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A CHINESE INSCRIBED AND HAND-PAINTED MARBLE INSET SIX PANEL SCREEN
LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY
The hardwood frame set into a later curved stand. The marble panels delicately painted with court figures in landscapes surrounded by a lengthy calligraphic inscription. Each of the screen's six panels is decorated with a fourteen-character Chinese couplet, the first couplet being repeated, perhaps for literary effect, on the fifth panel. Taken together, the couplets appear to tell the tale of an unknown yet worthy and persevering scholar, who finally attains the ultimate success in the imperial examinations on the last (or leftmost) panel. The couplets are finely
composed and draw on literary allusion, which adds to their rhetorical beauty. A
transcription and translation of the second couplet (the couplet that appears second from right) is given below as an illustrative example.
"The moon impartial has forever shone the same clear white;
The flower heedless of renown gives forth a perfume fine."
Note that the naturalistic veil of this couplet's second line harbours the sense of
"a certain person who is oblivious to fame and prestige [presumably the
persevering scholar mentioned above] is possessed of virtue that bears no
relation to his or her station". This sense is a product of the established
analogisation in Literary Chinese of virtuous people to perfumed flowers, and
the secondary sense of "beyond one's station" that is carried by the expression
translated as "fine". Note too that while the translation largely preserves the
original's metre and sense, it could not preserve its word-to-word antithesis,
which is characteristic of Chinese couplets, and heightens the parallel formed
between the moon of the first line and the figurative flower of the second.
Copyright Ely Finch 2021.
The contents from the Peninsula home of Sir Ian Potter and Lady Potter AC.
63.5cm high, 81cm wide
Sold for $1,600
Lot 27
LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY
The hardwood frame set into a later curved stand. The marble panels delicately painted with court figures in landscapes surrounded by a lengthy calligraphic inscription. Each of the screen's six panels is decorated with a fourteen-character Chinese couplet, the first couplet being repeated, perhaps for literary effect, on the fifth panel. Taken together, the couplets appear to tell the tale of an unknown yet worthy and persevering scholar, who finally attains the ultimate success in the imperial examinations on the last (or leftmost) panel. The couplets are finely
composed and draw on literary allusion, which adds to their rhetorical beauty. A
transcription and translation of the second couplet (the couplet that appears second from right) is given below as an illustrative example.
"The moon impartial has forever shone the same clear white;
The flower heedless of renown gives forth a perfume fine."
Note that the naturalistic veil of this couplet's second line harbours the sense of
"a certain person who is oblivious to fame and prestige [presumably the
persevering scholar mentioned above] is possessed of virtue that bears no
relation to his or her station". This sense is a product of the established
analogisation in Literary Chinese of virtuous people to perfumed flowers, and
the secondary sense of "beyond one's station" that is carried by the expression
translated as "fine". Note too that while the translation largely preserves the
original's metre and sense, it could not preserve its word-to-word antithesis,
which is characteristic of Chinese couplets, and heightens the parallel formed
between the moon of the first line and the figurative flower of the second.
Copyright Ely Finch 2021.
The contents from the Peninsula home of Sir Ian Potter and Lady Potter AC.
63.5cm high, 81cm wide
Estimate $2,000 - $3,000
Purchased by Dr Bouverie Anderson Stuart from Elwyn Yorke, Edgecliff, NSW, November 23 1954.
By decent to Lady Potter.
Decorative Arts
AUCTION
Sale: LJ8405
2:00pm - 24 May 2021
333 Malvern Rd, South Yarra 3141
VIEWING
Viewing:
Friday 21 - Sunday 23 May, 10am-4pm
CONTACT
Chiara Curcio
decorativearts@leonardjoel.com.au
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