A CHINESE MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID TABLE SCREEN

Ming Dynasty, 15th/16th Century

The rectangular screen decorated with finely carved pieces of mother-of-pearl inlay, the front with a scene depicting the poet Du Fu riding a donkey across a bridge, a small boy carrying a guqin wrapped in cloth leading the way as a bearded attendant carrying food vessels follows, the river landscape decorated with tufts of grass, bamboo, and willow and flowering prunus trees, the reverse with a solitary crane perched atop a gnarled pine branch above shoots of bamboo and blossoming prunus branches, all on a black lacquer ground, the stand painted with red lacquer,

41.5cm high

Provenance: acquired from Spink & Son on 19 April 1991, by repute; John Hilliard Collection, by repute

RCD Lockinge Radiocarbon Dating Measurement Report no. RCD-9318 is consistent with the dating of this lot.

明十五/十六世紀 黑漆嵌螺鈿人物故事圖插屏

來源：購於Spink & Son; John Hilliard 收藏。

Note: Du Fu (712-770) is considered one of the greatest poets in Chinese history. Working during the Tang Dynasty, regarded as a golden age for poetry, Du Fu not only employed technical brilliance in his works but also deep insight, wrestling with important current events such as the An Lushan rebellion, a war which had a devastating impact on Chinese society and led to the eventual downfall of the Tang Dynasty.

Eva Shan Chou wrote that “What he saw around him—the lives of his family, neighbors, and strangers– what he heard, and what he hoped for or feared from the progress of various campaigns—these became the enduring themes of his poetry" ^[1]. Du Fu is regarded as a historian as well as a poet due to his comprehensive coverage of the rebellion and its effects on society and regular people. Depictions of Du Fu on muleback were a popular theme for painters, and works of art with this theme would adorn the desks of Ming scholars.

^{[1] Eva Shan Chou, 'Reconsidering Tu Fu: Literary Greatness and Cultural Context', 1995, Cambridge, p.62.}

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