Footnotes

金 定窯白釉印花花石圖盤

Provenance:
Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987), New York
Christie's New York, 1 December 1994, lot 154
Eskenazi Ltd., London
Emmanuel Christofides (1928-2020), Athens and London, acquired from the above on 9 June 1995

Published, Illustrated and Exhibited:
Israel Museum, 3500 Years of Chinese Art: Ceramics from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Jerusalem, 1987 (exhibited)
D.Priestley and M.Flacks, A Life in the Company of Song Ceramics, London, 2017, pp.72-73, no.30 (published and illustrated)
S.Wong and S.Pierson, eds., Collectors, Curators, Connoisseurs: A Century of the Oriental Ceramic Society 1921-2021, London, 2021, pp.186-187, no.59

來源：
Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987)，紐約
紐約佳士得， 1994年12月1日，拍品編號154
倫敦古董商埃斯卡納齊
Emmanuel Christofides (1928-2020)，雅典和倫敦，從上處獲得於1995年6月9日

展覽著錄：
以色列博物館，《3500 Years of Chinese Art: Ceramics from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections》，耶路撒冷，1987年 (展覽)
D.Priestley和M.Flacks，《A Life in the Company of Song Ceramics》，倫敦，2017年，第72-73頁，編號30 (著錄插圖)
S.Wong和S.Pierson編，《百年清賞：東方陶瓷學會的收藏家、鑑賞家及博物館員》，倫敦，2021年，第186-187頁，編號59

Arthur M. Sackler (1913–1987) was an influential American art collector and philanthropist, known for his dedication to Chinese art. A successful medical publisher, he amassed a renowned collection of Chinese antiquities, focusing on jades, ceramics, bronzes, and paintings, particularly from the Tang and Song dynasties. Sackler played a crucial role in establishing the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, which houses one of the world's premier collections of Asian art. Through his philanthropy, he significantly advanced the study and appreciation of Chinese culture, leaving a lasting impact on the art world.

The dish, decorated with a large, central depiction of a rock, is extremely rare and reflects a significant cultural shift in Song dynasty aesthetics, where the literati class developed a profound appreciation for rocks and natural forms imbued with symbolic meaning. So called 'Scholar's rocks', with their gnarled, irregular shapes and evocative textures, became highly prized as objects of contemplation for the literati. These stones became miniature mountains and symbolised the natural world's spontaneous creativity and served as metaphors for the Confucian and Daoist ideals of resilience, purity, and transformation. Their unique forms were seen as embodying the spirit of the mountains and streams, linking them to the literati's favoured themes in painting and poetry.

A pivotal figure in the rise of this predilection to rocks was Mi Fu (1051–1107), a Song dynasty calligrapher, painter, and connoisseur, whose legendary devotion to a particularly remarkable rock has become part of Chinese cultural lore. According to the tale, Mi Fu once encountered a uniquely shaped stone so striking that he bowed to it, referring to it reverently as his 'elder brother'. This act, blending playfulness with reverence, encapsulated the literati's attitude toward these natural forms: a recognition of their inherent beauty and a personification of their artistic and intellectual ideals. Inspired by Mi Fu's example, collecting and displaying scholar's rocks became a widespread practice among the literati, who arranged these stones in gardens, studios, and display shelves to enhance their scholarly environments.

Even emperors shared the obsession for rocks. The artistically obsessed last emperor of the Northern Song dynasty, Huizong (r.1100-1126), commissioned the transportation of an enormous Taihu rock for his Imperial garden in Kaifeng, requiring a specially built canal and immense resources. This extravagant project, undertaken amid rising threats from the Jurchens, symbolised his prioritisation of aesthetics over governance. Ultimately, the rock never reached its destination, as the Jin invasion led to the fall of Kaifeng and Huizong's capture, marking the tragic downfall of his reign — an enduring metaphor for the perils of artistic ambition overshadowing political responsibility.

Ceramic designs such as the present lot, featuring rocks in garden settings surrounded by auspicious plants, such as peonies, were likely influenced by the artistic styles seen in woodblock prints or paintings of the time. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the adoption of moulds also became more widespread, significantly improving the efficiency and production capacity of the Ding kilns.

Compare with a related Dingyao dish with lotus in the central roundel encircled by a peony band, Song dynasty, at the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, p.73, no.64. See also a related Dingyao moulded dish with a lotus pattern, in the Cleveland Museum of Art, illustrated by J.Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, Stockholm, 1970, p.78 b.