Page 62 - Bloch-4

562 Ding Erzhong's Lanting Preface'

Provenance:

Unnecorded Source (China 1930) The Ko Family (1987)

Published:

Kleiner, The Bloch Collection, no. 251

JICSBS, Spring 1988, front cover

Arts of Asia, September-October 1990, p. 98

Chinese Snuff Bottles. A Miniature Art,

no. 305

British Museum, Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, no. 396

Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch (illustrated folder), Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July 1997

Exhibited:

Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, October 1987

Creditanstalt, Vienna, May-June 1993 Hong Kong Museum of Art, March-June 1994

National Museum, Singapore, November 1994-February 1995 British Museum, London, June-November 1995 Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July-November 1997

Crystal, ink and water-colours; with a flat lip and recessed, flat, elongated oval foot surrounded by a protruding, flat footrim of the same shape; painted on one main side with an illustration of the Lanting Gathering, with scholars seated either side of a stream winding between rocks and trees, including a pine, watching cups of wine float past while they await their turn to compose poems, the roof of the Lanting visible beyond a rocky bank on the left of the painting, inscribed with the title, in clerical script, 'A Painting of the Purification Festival,' followed in draft script by 'Painted by Erzhong after a Song version,'

with one seal of the artist, Ding, in negative regular script, the other main side inscribed in draft script with the entire text of Wang Xizhi's preface, preceded by 'The lanting Preface' [by] Wang Xizhi of the Jin [dynasty],' and followed by 'Copied by Erzhong at the

capital in winter, in the tenth month of the year jiashen,' with one seal of the artist,

Erzhong, in negative seal script

Ding Erzhong, Xuannan, Beijing, 1898-1900

Stopper: coral; stained walrus ivory

Illustration: watercolour by Peter Suart

This is one of two masterpieces painted by Ding Erzhong of this inspiring subject, inspiring because the lanting Preface' is the single most influential piece of calligraphy in the entire culture, and probably the most influential single work of art since it combined the resonance of a great gathering of the literati of their day at an elegant party with both masterly poetry and superb calligraphy. Even Wang Xizhi (321-379), the artist, was unable to recapture the elan of the original version when he tried to rewrite it later. You had to be there... It inspired artists over the centuries on numerous occasions and the preface became a standard calligraphic text for both the training and mature expressions of the great calligraphers. For the entire text of the lanting Preface,' and further information, see Treasury 3, no. 395. The painting, taken from a Song version of this popular subject, shows a group of forty-two scholars who gathered for a Spring