Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 10. (Budapest, 1967)

HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM - MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Horváth, Tibor: A Carved Lacquer Ting with the Mark of Hsüan-te

Fig. 3. The other side of the flower and bird decoration constructed composition is the characteristic style of the lacquer carving of the 14

th and the beginning of the 15

th century period

9

. Our ting represents another style, the "flower and bird" picture on it gives a looser but distinctly composed order in a certain rhythmical sequence. This striving for clarity was further underlined by the use of two colours. The densely constructed compositions are purely decorative notwithstanding the naturalistic character of the motives. There is only one exception in the early group of the carved lacquers, an octagonal plate with figures on a terrace (from the Yuan period) in the Palace Museum, Peking, the oldest of its kind. (The border of this is also decorative in character with camellia flowers). This terrace scene was obviously adapted from paintings depicting the same subject, The "flower and bird" motive on our ting is also related to the Sung painting (cf. Two Sparrows and Plum Blossoms, attributed to Ma Lin in the collection of Tatsuo Yamamoto, Tokyo, Sparrows and Bamboos attributed to Mu-ch'i in the Nezu Art Museum, Tokyo) probably indirectly via some k'ossus of the Sung period (cf. Plums and Sparrows attributed to Shen Tzu-fan, in the Palace Museum, Peking). But in the Ming period, the books with woodblock-print illustrations were widely used for copying motives intended for lacquers, porcelains, bamboo-carving, and so on. Probably many sketch and copy-books were also used in every workshop. 9 The Art of the Ming and Ch'ing Period, Tokyo, National Museum, 1963. — The Art of the Ming Period, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1956. - M. Pirazolli — T'Serstevens, Note sur un plateau de laque attribué à l'époque Yuan, Arts Asiatiques, XV/1967. pp. 51-64. 13* 179