Period:Qing dynasty Production date:18thC
Materials:jade
Technique:carved
Subjects:harvesting/haymaking
Dimensions:Diameter: 19 centimetres
Description:
Large and finely carved spinach jade brushpot showing a scene on the farm harvesting rice.
IMG
![图片[1]-brush-pot BM-2022-3034.284-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Qin dynasty/Jades/528_.jpg)
Comments:This substantial brush pot is cylindrical and stands on five small feet. Around the outside is dense, detailed carving depicting buildings in a landscape and two scenes from farming life. These two scenes can be directly compared with images from the set of pictures conventionally used to illustrate rice growing and sericulture, known as the Gengzhi tu. These subjects had probably already been depicted as a set as early as the twelfth century. This set is thought to have had twenty-one images, depicting the cultivation of silkworms, weaving and agriculture. Woodblock, stone engraved and painted images of these sequences were made in the Qing dynasty. The scenes on the present brush pot were probably copied from one such set, perhaps even from the printed edition of 1696 (which the BM owns). The two principal scenes show the winnowing of grain and the stacking of sheaves. Ellen Laing has argued convincingly that jade workshops followed conventional painting themes in some of their work, creating in effect pictures on jade. Both the subject matter and some techniques of the painter or engraver were acquired. See Rawson 1995, pp.406-409, cat.no.29.18.
Materials:jade
Technique:carved
Subjects:harvesting/haymaking
Dimensions:Diameter: 19 centimetres
Description:
Large and finely carved spinach jade brushpot showing a scene on the farm harvesting rice.
IMG
Comments:This substantial brush pot is cylindrical and stands on five small feet. Around the outside is dense, detailed carving depicting buildings in a landscape and two scenes from farming life. These two scenes can be directly compared with images from the set of pictures conventionally used to illustrate rice growing and sericulture, known as the Gengzhi tu. These subjects had probably already been depicted as a set as early as the twelfth century. This set is thought to have had twenty-one images, depicting the cultivation of silkworms, weaving and agriculture. Woodblock, stone engraved and painted images of these sequences were made in the Qing dynasty. The scenes on the present brush pot were probably copied from one such set, perhaps even from the printed edition of 1696 (which the BM owns). The two principal scenes show the winnowing of grain and the stacking of sheaves. Ellen Laing has argued convincingly that jade workshops followed conventional painting themes in some of their work, creating in effect pictures on jade. Both the subject matter and some techniques of the painter or engraver were acquired. See Rawson 1995, pp.406-409, cat.no.29.18.
© Copyright
The copyright of the article belongs to the author, please keep the original link for reprinting.
THE END
![[Qing Dynasty] British female painter—Elizabeth Keith, using woodblock prints to record China from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China—1915-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image-191x300.png)
