After a heated bidding battle that went on for a record-breaking 95 minutes, a 700-year-old handscroll fetched over $32 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong final Thursday, April 10, significantly surpassing presale estimates that had projected the work to promote for as much as $1.29 million (20,000,000 HKD).
Created by 14th-century calligrapher Rao Jie, the handscroll noticed greater than 200 gives earlier than the hammer went down throughout a sale of classical Chinese language portray. Steven Zuo, the division’s head for Sotheby’s Asia, informed Hyperallergic {that a} non-public collector who bid by way of phone snagged the work, which is now essentially the most precious piece of Chinese language calligraphy that the public sale home has bought. (The customer’s identify has not been made public.)
However what was behind the bidding frenzy to start with? Because it seems, the reply stretches again centuries, as Rao’s calligraphy has lengthy captured the eye of artwork collectors.
The scene eventually week’s historic 95-minute bidding
A local of the southeast Jiangxi province, Rao lived and labored amid the tumultuous transition between the Yuan and Ming dynasties. His type attracts from a mixture of each the classical type related to the “Two Wangs” — the fourth-century “calligraphy sage” Wang Xizhi and his son Wang Xianzhi — and the energetic pace that defines the Wild Cursive custom of the Tang Dynasty, as pre-modern Chinese language calligraphy scholar and Indiana College assistant professor Yan Weitian defined.
“The styles of the Two Wangs are best known for their fluent, spontaneous, and highly gestural movements of brushstrokes,” Yan informed Hyperallergic.
The scroll’s contents comprise transcriptions of two Tang dynasty-era essays — Music Meng Dongye Xu (Preface on Seeing off Meng Jiao) (801–2) by scholar Han Yu and Zi Ren Zhuan (Biography of a Carpenter) (798) by thinker Liu Zongyuan. Yan defined that the replica of well-known writings is a standard follow amongst Chinese language calligraphers.
“It is basically a way for calligraphers to borrow established literary work to express themselves,” Yan stated.
However content material apart, the handscroll options greater than 100 added postscripts, which traditionally supply particular person assessments of a given work and, by extension, add to its total cultural significance. Postscripts, in any other case generally known as colophons, may also present precious perception into a piece’s provenance, which on this case traces throughout the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and consists of one in every of China’s most important artwork collectors, Qianlong Emperor.
The fourth and longest residing ruler of the Qing dynasty, Qianlong Emperor was identified for his ardour for portray and calligraphy, exhibited not solely in his private artwork follow but in addition in his huge holdings, which at this time comprise nearly all of work and calligraphic works within the collections of the Palace Museum in Beijing and the Taipei Palace Museum.
The hand scroll options greater than 100 added postscripts, which doc its provenance and underscore its historic cultural significance.
For this handscroll, the emperor not solely added a postscript, but in addition created a distinguishable frontispiece for the work and documented it in his catalogues, “an honor reserved only for Qianlong Emperor’s most cherished calligraphy,” Zuo stated.
A bit of the hand scroll
Final week’s public sale of traditional portray and calligraphy adopted the success of an October sale that totaled $11.47 million. The latter, which additionally drastically exceeded the excessive finish of its $4.28 million pre-sale estimate, centered on 113 imperial portray and calligraphy works. The star was an undated gold paper fan leaf that bought for $648,700 (5,040,000 HKD).
“We have also observed a growing number of young collectors this season, drawn by a deep reverence for their cultural heritage,” Zuo added, noting that final yr throughout Sotheby’s public sale facilities, particularly Hong Kong, 32% of bidders have been 40 years previous and youthful.
“This season’s Classical Chinese Paintings sales further underscore the trend, with the number of young buyers more than doubling compared to last season,” Zuo stated.
However the success of the record-breaking handscroll could have extra to do with the present second. Collectors, Matteini stated, have lately been expressing elevated curiosity in works affiliated with the Chinese language imperial courts.
“There’s a peculiar nostalgia for court life fueling the imagination of buyers these days,” Matteini stated.
