These two colorful figures of women were produced by unidentified artists in China sometime during the reign of the emperor Kangxi—between 1662 and 1722. They are among the most important pieces of Chinese porcelain in the Frick’s collection. The figures were probably produced by pressing clay into a mold—hence their similar forms—but are distinguished from each other by their glazing in detailed patterns and coloring. Their manicured hands emerge from hanging sleeves, seeming to offer gifts that have long been lost and perhaps once carrying flowers or fruit. The women exemplify ideals of female beauty in Chinese culture at the time, embodying many of the characteristics associated with female beauty by the seventeenth-century writer and aesthetician Li Yu: egg-shaped rather than round faces, eyebrows delicately curved like the leaves of a willow tree, lips resembling cherries, and slim, supple, curved bodies, also resembling willow trees. Although they may have been made for export to Europe, their large size and their shape made them extremely fragile to pack and ship, and thus very costly to transport. Only a few examples reached Europe.
Two Figures of Ladies on Stands
A particularly fruitful and innovative period of production, the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw the development of new techniques and styles of ornamentation. One of the most important contributions was the invention of overglaze enamel palettes, known as famille vert because they are dominated by translucent green glazes. This porcelain figure of an elegant lady on a stand, and its pair, 1918.8.39, are decorated with a colorful mix of green, red, yellow, aubergine, and blue glazes in a pattern of naturalistic motifs including chrysanthemums, rose blossoms, and flying storks combined with abstract elements like the large wan—a swastika-shaped Buddhist symbol for good fortune—that is repeated on the porcelain bases. The women represent ideal female beauty, as defined by the seventeenth-century writer and aesthetician Li Yu (1611–1680): egg-shaped rather than round faces, eyebrows lightly curved like the leaves of a willow tree, lips resembling cherries, and slim, supple, curved bodies also resembling willow trees. Their delicate hands seem to be offering a fruit or a flower, in China the sign of a good wish extended from a woman to a man. These two figural ceramics were probably made for export to the West; however, their large size made them particularly fragile to ship, and only a few ever reached Europe.
Source: Vignon, Charlotte. The Frick Collection Decorative Arts Handbook. New York: The Frick Collection/Scala, 2015.
J. Pierpont Morgan, London and New York, 1907. Duveen. Frick, 1918.
Source: Porcelains in The Frick Collection: Oriental and French. Volume VII. New York: The Frick Collection, 1974.
