Antique Ancestor Official in Ornate Robes, China (5686)

Description

This fine carving of a seated Mandarin ancestor figure reflects the opulent aesthetic and social aspirations of the rising Qing dynasty merchant class. Up through the Qing Dynasty the Chinese bureaucracy was run by a class of scholarly elite officials schooled in history, philosophy and the Confucian teachings of statecraft and ethics and who passed rigorous government exams. In the  social transformations of 18th and 19th-century China a powerful class of wealthy merchant cartels rose to power through trade in salt, tea, silk, and finance. In the strict Confucian social hierarchy wealthy merchants were relegated to the the lowest tier, while scholar-officials (Mandarins) held the ultimate social prestige. To elevate their family  wealthy merchants poured vast fortunes into buying honorary imperial titles or financing their sons’ education for civil service exams. This oppulent and fine carving reflects that transformation.

The ancestor’s forceful face with inset glass pupils, high cheekbones, projecting chin with holes for hair for his moustache and beard  and wrinkles indicating his wisdom of age and the authoritative achievement.. His official attire is meant to impress from his hat to his extravagant robes to his boots. The first layer is a barely visible around his neck. The middle yellow-gold layer is decorated with a wide red trim (the color of fu or blessings) and a bead shaped border enclosing beautifully lacquered floral sprays in relief. The outer robe bordered with spirals. The robe has elegant folds and cranes on the shoulders and knees symbols of longevity, wisdom and good fortune and Taoist ideals of immortality and harmony with nature. Stylized clouds (yun) are scattered which are a homophone for good fortune and, as they are high in the sky, they symbolize high rank. Covered with a smokey black coating from incense and candle offerings, they compound the natural darkening of Chinese lacquer over time.

Statues like this were placed on family altars to visually assert the honored lineage of political and intellectual elite status. The heavy use of vibrant red lacquer and expensive gold gilding are. part and parcel of the  lavish, ostentatious culture of the late imperial merchant class, who favored symbols of success and divine favor over the monochrome, minimalist restraint of the previous Ming dynasty.

The rear cavity indicates it was consecrated. While Buddhist statues held sutras,Qing merchant class typically held a “statue soul” paper or silk scroll that listed the patriarch’s name, birth/death dates, lineage achievements, and specific prayers for the family’s prosperity and business success. A form of ancestor worship, this carving could have been on a home altar but given its size and beauty, it may have been in a special family or clan shrine.

The front is in excellent good condition with expected surface losses; the back has age and some old stabilized insect deterioration. This special piece set on a modern frosted Lucite stand is one of our most important ancestor figures. 

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Sources

Terese Tse Bartholomew, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, San Francisco, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2006.      

Patricia Bjaaland Welch, Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, North Clarendon, Tuttle Publishing, 2008.