Day 87 - Drunken scholar

September 11, 2018

Gallery 221 displays more objects (plates, brush holders, screens, etc.) decorated with figural representations. The objects largely depict adults, although one I particularly like is a small round lacquer box showing a child in an  oval tub being washed by a woman, presumably his mother. There are several painted porcelain dishes depicting women doing typical "womanly" things, like cooking and smelling flowers. 

Many of the objects show (and I assume were made for) gentleman scholars. These individuals are usually portrayed writing, painting, strolling in gardens, sitting in pavillions drinking tea and conversing, or otherwise doing the highly respectable things scholars are supposed to do. But today's object, an 18th century porcelain plate perhaps 8 inches in diameter, is captioned "plate with a drunken scholar and an attendant." I am not sure which is which. Is the scholar the bald, almost supine figure in the background, wearing an unusual pink garment  and holding a blue cup up to his lips, his eyes slightly open? Or (as seems more probable) is he the larger bearded figure in the foreground sitting with his eyes closed, his right arm stretched over a huge wine vat lying on its side? In the latter instance, the servant may be sneaking a drink while his master sleeps it off. In either case, a fan lies unused at the feet of the larger figure; maybe the scholar would have fanned himself, or maybe he would have been fanned by the servant.  Other large containers appear in the background.  

The object strikes me as not-so-slyly humorous - a takedown of the conventional image of the scholar as a figure of rectitude and probity, his pleasures ones of the intellect, not the body. Yet presumably there was a market for plates like this, and scholars were not above recognizing the element of truth captured in a such a plate  - even if they believed that that truth applied to other scholars, not themselves.

Besides, the plate itself is quite beautiful, with its delicate pastel tones of pink and blue and lilac and green and its charming border of alternating flowers and fruits. So its owner could have prided himself both on having a sense of humor and on being a connoisseur!