Lot Essay
Previously sold in London, 13 June 1989, lot 68.
(US$500,000-580,000)
These extraordinary bronze heads belong to a set of twelve Chinese astrological zodiac figures, commissioned by Imperial command, for the famous horological fountain at the foot of the grand marble staircase on the west front of the Haiyan Tang, the Hall of the Calm Sea, one of the European palaces in the garden of the Yuanmingyuan, the Garden of Perfect Clarity. The spectacular water-work was the centrepiece of Qianlong's most fantastic and whimsical architectural commission, based on European style and technology. Part of a complex water-driven clock, the hydraulics were designed by the French Jesuit Father Michel Benoist (1715-1774) who arrived in Beijing in 1744, and worked under the stewardship of the better-known Jesuit, Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1768). Benoist's correspondence reveal that the horological fountain which had caused him great difficulty and anxiety, was particularly prized by Qianlong.
The sequence of the twelve animals in the group is as follows: the rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and boar. Logistically, it was believed that each of the animal spouted water for two hours at their designated times with the exception of noon when all twelve spouted water in unison.
The ox would have spouted water during the period of one to three o'Clock in the morning.
An engraving (pictured overleaf), one of a set of twenty views of the European pavilions at the Yuanmingyuan, was made in 1783 on the instructions of the Emperor and indicates that the set of animals were arranged in two groups of six seated on rectangular plinths at either end of the fan-shaped pool, flanking a large conch shell above rockwork. The symmetry of this massive and theatrical ornamental display in every way conformed to the Napoleonic prescription of order, balance and harmony in 18th-century French architecture, and is perhaps the Emperor Qianlong's most sumptuous Occidental commission.
By 1786, the elaborate hydraulic machinery was already out of order and in October 1860 the fountain was destroyed during the sacking of the Yuanmingyuan by British and French troops. A sketch drawn by an officer who was present at the looting in 1860, illustrated by M. Beurdeley, Giuseppe Castiglione: A Jesuit Painter at the Court of the Chinese Emperors, 1971, p. 72, shows the animals still in situ around the part of the fountain which is visible. It is possible that the bronze heads were taken to Paris at that time and included in one of the 'Palais d'Ete' sales held at the Hotel Drouot between 1861 and 1863.
Five heads from this historic edifice re-appeared from complete obscurity in recent years. The monkey and the boar sold at auction in New York after several years on loan to the Metropolitan Museum in 1987, while the ox, horse and tiger forming another part of the zodiac suite, were sold in London, 13 June 1989. Michel Beurdeley illustrates another two: a rabbit and a rat, in Peintres Jesuites en Chine au XVIIIe Siecle, p. 140.
(US$500,000-580,000)
These extraordinary bronze heads belong to a set of twelve Chinese astrological zodiac figures, commissioned by Imperial command, for the famous horological fountain at the foot of the grand marble staircase on the west front of the Haiyan Tang, the Hall of the Calm Sea, one of the European palaces in the garden of the Yuanmingyuan, the Garden of Perfect Clarity. The spectacular water-work was the centrepiece of Qianlong's most fantastic and whimsical architectural commission, based on European style and technology. Part of a complex water-driven clock, the hydraulics were designed by the French Jesuit Father Michel Benoist (1715-1774) who arrived in Beijing in 1744, and worked under the stewardship of the better-known Jesuit, Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1768). Benoist's correspondence reveal that the horological fountain which had caused him great difficulty and anxiety, was particularly prized by Qianlong.
The sequence of the twelve animals in the group is as follows: the rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and boar. Logistically, it was believed that each of the animal spouted water for two hours at their designated times with the exception of noon when all twelve spouted water in unison.
The ox would have spouted water during the period of one to three o'Clock in the morning.
An engraving (pictured overleaf), one of a set of twenty views of the European pavilions at the Yuanmingyuan, was made in 1783 on the instructions of the Emperor and indicates that the set of animals were arranged in two groups of six seated on rectangular plinths at either end of the fan-shaped pool, flanking a large conch shell above rockwork. The symmetry of this massive and theatrical ornamental display in every way conformed to the Napoleonic prescription of order, balance and harmony in 18th-century French architecture, and is perhaps the Emperor Qianlong's most sumptuous Occidental commission.
By 1786, the elaborate hydraulic machinery was already out of order and in October 1860 the fountain was destroyed during the sacking of the Yuanmingyuan by British and French troops. A sketch drawn by an officer who was present at the looting in 1860, illustrated by M. Beurdeley, Giuseppe Castiglione: A Jesuit Painter at the Court of the Chinese Emperors, 1971, p. 72, shows the animals still in situ around the part of the fountain which is visible. It is possible that the bronze heads were taken to Paris at that time and included in one of the 'Palais d'Ete' sales held at the Hotel Drouot between 1861 and 1863.
Five heads from this historic edifice re-appeared from complete obscurity in recent years. The monkey and the boar sold at auction in New York after several years on loan to the Metropolitan Museum in 1987, while the ox, horse and tiger forming another part of the zodiac suite, were sold in London, 13 June 1989. Michel Beurdeley illustrates another two: a rabbit and a rat, in Peintres Jesuites en Chine au XVIIIe Siecle, p. 140.