A lacquer box. Wood with vermillion lacquer and lacquer colours. Late Ming period, 17th century
Of long rectangular form. The scene at the centre of the lid depicts Li Yuan shooting the arrow exactly between the eyes of a phoenix depicted on a screen, below this scene, a couple in a pavilion watching a group of children at play; above this scene, a scholar receiving a visitor. Flowering branches and birds on all sides. Red lacquer inside. The entire box covered with crackle due to shrinkage of the wooden core. Two losses of the lacquer on the lid.
Height 13.5 cm; width 22 cm; length 67.5 cm
The subject of the archery contest is taken from the biographies of empresses and imperial concubines (liezhuan houji) as recorded in the “Annals of the Tang dynasty” (Xi Tangshu, 27) and enjoyed great popularity in the lacquer art of the 17th century. The successful archer Li Yuan, who later became the Tang emperor Gaozu, won the hand of the lady Dou by winning the archery competition. The motif in the same painterly style and bright colours can be found on a similar box in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (ill. in: Werner Speiser, Lackkunst in Ostasien; Baden-Baden 1965, p. 150-151), in the Piert-Borgers Collection (Patricia Frick, Chinesische Lackkunst. Eine deutsche Privatsammlung, Museum für Lackkunst Münster, 2010, pp. 68-69, no. 32) and on a large box in the Honolulu Academy of Arts (James C. Watt, The Sumptuous Basket, Chinese Lacquer with basketry panels, New York 1985, pp. 76-77, no. 25). Sir Harry Garner also mentions a similar box in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (A Group of Chinese Lacquers with Basketry panels, in: Archives of Asian Art, vol. 20 (1966-67), p. 23, footnote 6).
The many lacquer colours are a special feature of the present box which was probably used for scrolls. The dominant colour is white, which is used for the faces and the details of the pavilions. The rocks are rendered in various shades of green and blue. Red varies from deep red, coral red to pink which appears in the foliage of some trees.
明末 十七世紀
紅地彩漆李淵射箭圖紋木盒