Box inscriptions:
Outer box cover:
“Song Huizong’s imperial brush’s feather-and-fur of the divine class; inscribed by Naitō Konan.”
Inner box cover:
The inscription notes that the emperor Huizong was skilled at painting birds and enjoyed giving his paintings to his subjects. It states that this “authentic picture” was presented to the eunuch Wang Jin.
Note: Naito Konan (1866-1934), a historian, sinologist and the founder of the Kyoto school of historiography, wrote both the title and inscription in 1925.
A white eagle perches regally atop a garden rock, both legs restrained by metal clamps attached by a chain and tethered to the rock below. His raised head and fierce glance suggests that he remains intensely aware of the outside world and is an unwilling inhabitant of the garden. Attributed to Zhao Ji (1082-1135), the Song emperor Huizong, the painting illustrates several of the emperor’s passions: for exotic garden rocks, examples of which were shipped to the palace from all over the country, one type, a “dragon rock” illustrated here (fig. 1) is mirrored in the present painting.
Another preoccupation of the emperor was with auspicious birds; the eagle preeminent among them/Eagles are common emblems of imperial might as well as general symbols of strength, courage, and utter fearlessness. They thus figure often in works associated with the imperial court as exemplified by a painting in the Musee Cernuschi, attributed to Huizong, in which the eagle appears to perch on a dragon rock (fig. 2). Another attributed to the emperor, a handsome white eagle tethered in this case to a horizontal wooden rail is in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, the bird’s stance very similar to the present. (fig. 3). An eagle appearing greater in bulk than size than the others, it claws clutching a branch of an old, desiccated tree as it steadies itself with numerous inscriptions filling the sky above, that appear to be descriptive, analytical, and eulogistic is in the Palace Museum in Taipei (fig. 4). It is possible that an original by the emperor served as a model for the numerous editions recorded or extant, a small number illustrated here. While those that strike a collector or author as most likely to be early are simply “attributed” to the emperor, and sometimes a Song date is suggested, for others, such as the Palace Museum painting, a later date is considered; in the case of that painting, the Yuan dynasty.
The present painting is difficult to date, in large part because of its poor state of preservation. A recent remounting of the painting revealed the use of the fanto fa technique, which is the reinforcement of surface color in certain areas by the application of the same pigment on the reverse side of the silk. This is a characteristic Song technique and is known today in paintings of the 12th century.1
1. See the discussion by Wai-kam Ho in Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting, Cleveland, 1980, cat. 47, p. 63.
—
Fig. 1. Zhao Ji, att., “Auspicious Dragon Rock,” detail, after Zhongguo meishu quanji, huihua bian, vol. 3, Beijing, 1988, pl. 46, p. 94.
—
Fig. 2. Zhao Ji, att., “Eagle on Rock in the Sea,” Musee Cernuschi, Paris, after Suzuki Kei, ed.: Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Paintings, Tokyo, 1982, vol. 2, p.172, no. E14-002.
—
Fig. 3. Zhao Ji, att., “White Eagle,” National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, after https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/51840/
—
Fig, 4. Zhao Ji, att., “Painting of an Eagle,” National Palace Museum, Taipei, after the Gugong shu-hualu vol.5, book 3 (SV205).
Details:
