Return to Defining Yongle
The inscription in gold at the left side of the painting indicates that it was made at the court during the reign of the Yongle emperor. This painting and the other nine in the set, which also depict arhats, are rare surviving examples of court paintings produced in this period. Arhats (known in Chinese as luohans) are enlightened beings that remain in the phenomenal world to help guide others on the spiritual journey. Each of the paintings (three are on view in this exhibition) features a gentleman-monk seated in an isolated, paradisiacal realm and accompanied by exotic attendants and mystical animals.
Cups of this shape, made in both porcelain and jade, are found in some numbers in Tibet because they were given as gifts to the many clerics and dignitaries from various Tibetan centers who visited the court of the Yongle emperor. Others were probably used at the court, presumably in Buddhist ceremonies, to hold offerings such as water or flowers.
The lush, slightly sugary glaze covering this flask is often called tianbai, or sweet white, after a reference to such porcelains in the work of a sixteenth-century author. A six-pointed medallion, comparable to that found on the blue-and-white flask of the same shape in the present exhibition, is delicately incised under the glaze using a technique known as anhua, or hidden decoration. Porcelains with such glazes and decoration were popular at the court during the reign of the Yongle emperor.
This extraordinary box, most likely made for a Tibetan visitor to the Chinese court, would have been used to carry belongings, both personal goods and gifts such as porcelains and textiles. The large lotus scrolls painted on the sides, and in particular the spiky blossoms, derive from Nepali artistic traditions that were introduced to China in the late thirteenth century. The iron lock for the box is decorated with inlays of gold and silver—a technique sometimes known as damascening that was also introduced to China at that time.
A vigorous, sinewy dragon with a flowing mane and beard, tufts of hair at the joints, a prominent snout, horns, and long whiskers is often found on works produced in lacquer, porcelain, and other media during the reign of the Yongle emperor. Although carved red lacquers in some numbers are known from the period, examples decorated in the elegant incised-and-gilt (qiangjin) technique are rare. The metalwork lock and key on this box are original.
Small pieces from the inner shell of the haliotis mollusk are inlaid into a black lacquer base to create the images of an aged plum tree, rocks, and birds that fill the center of this tray. Different sizes of shell, and pieces that were cut at different angles or to varying depths, are skillfully blended to differentiate among the smooth, flat surface of the rocks, the gnarled bark of the tree, and the gossamer petals of the plum blossoms.
Manjushri is shown here in his four-armed form, holding a bow (now missing) and arrow as well as the traditional sword and book (a volume of the Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom). The first two implements illustrate his capacity to defeat egotism, and the second his ability to confound ignorance. Unknown in later Indian and Tibetan traditions, this four-armed manifestation of Manjushri (Chinese: Wenshu) was important in China in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.
Yamantaka-Vajrabhairava is a powerful protective deity who played an important role in Buddhist practice at the Chinese court during the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Yamantaka conquers Yama, the lord of death, and, by extension, transcends death. In some manifestations, he also embodies the powers of Vajrabhairava, who has the ability to spur destruction, thereby renewal.