JIANG TINGXI (1669–1732)Manuel Impérial des Oiseaux, Niao PuPerroquet aux Joues RougesJIANG TINGXI (1669-1732)Imperial Manual of Birds, Niao PuRed-cheeked ParrotInk and colour on silk, album leaf and calligraphy, framed and under glass, title slip reading 'hong jia lv ying ge, with two seals of the artist reading chen Tingxi and chaochao ran han. 40.5cm x 41cm (16in x 16 1/8in)Footnotes:蔣廷錫（1669-1732）鳥譜 紅頰綠鸚哥 設色绢本 鏡框鈐印：臣廷錫、朝朝染翰題跋：紅頰綠鸚哥。黑睛黃眶。綠瞼黃喙。深綠頂。兩頰至腦後俱鮮紅色。頷下深黑。項背臆腹黃質綠斑間有白毛。膊翅深綠色帶赭黃紋。翅根間以青翠。尾翎甚細。外青裏白。蒼白足黑爪。此種比諸鸚哥爲最小。Provenance:According to family history, acquired in China in the late 19th century, inherited by the father of present owners and thence by descent in the family 來源：據家族記載，此拍品於十九世紀末得自中國，由現藏家之父繼承，後經家族流傳至今Like the previous lot, this album leaf and the accompanying calligraphy are also from the Imperial Manual of Birds (Niao Pu). As indicated in the title slip, the illustration depicts a red-cheeked parrot (Geoffroyus geoffroyi) (hong jia lv ying ge 紅頰綠鸚哥), a small, long-tailed parrot whose natural habitat is in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Like the cockatoo in the previous illustration, the parrot on this leaf is painted with great attention to detail, revealing an in depth study and understanding of the subject captured: while the cheeks and neck of the bird's head are a vibrant shade of red, the crown and the back of the head are a dark green while the throat and neck are bluish-black tone, the breast, abdomen, tail, upper and lower tail-coverts are a pale yellow-green, while the lower back and wings are a darker green, the under wing-coverts are blue. The underside of the tail is a pale yellow, the eyes have pale yellow irises, the upper beak is a bright red tone and the lower beak is grey. Jiang Tingxi, a native of Changshu in southern Jiangsu province, was a scholar-official, who attained the rank of Grand Academician in the Hall of Literary Brilliance under the Kangxi emperor. He was also a skilled painter who was renowned for his flower and bird paintings. Influenced by Yun Shouping (1633-1690), Jiang Tingxi perfected the 'boneless' style of ink washes instead of outlines and worked alongside the Jesuit missionary and painter Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) in the Ruyi Hall of the Forbidden City. His highly realistic painting style shows the Western influence of the natural sciences and scientific observation, and is in stark contrast with the encoded, schematic animals in classical Chinese illustrations. Rendering the plumage of each bird in delicate, fine lines and highly accurate colors, Jiang's images are far more detailed than any earlier printed source, with exception of Emperor Huizong's painting of a five-coloured parakeet, now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, which was also painted in a highly realistic manner after observing a live bird. The sharply observed and realistically rendered details of the birds depicted on the majority of the 360 leaves of the album suggest that all the birds were painted from life. The later copy of the Niao Pu by by Zhang Weibang 張維邦 (ca. 1725-1775) and Yu Sheng 余省 (1692-1767) with its traced images of the original album leaves lacks the realistic character of the subjects included in Jiang Tingxi's album as seen in the copy of the red-cheeked parrot, accession number 故畫003600N000000005 (Fig. 2).It has been argued that the Imperial Manual of Birds was part of the Kangxi Emperor's (r. 1654-1722) grand imperial publication projects to support his own political mandate. Over the course of his reign, Kangxi commissioned two monumental encyclopedias, entitled the Mirror of Origins Based on the Investigation of Things (Gewuzhizhi 格物致知), and the Synthesis of Books and Illustrations Past and Present (Gujin tushu jicheng 古今圖書集成), which were completed and published under his son, the Yongzheng emperor (r. 1722-1735). Both encyclopedias included sections on plant, tree, bird, and insect species that drew upon numerous references to historical texts as well as direct observation. Wang Tubing's text on the cockatoo, written in regular script, mentions that this species originally came from the south in the Tang dynasty. It indicates that exotic birds and other animals from far lands arrived as gifts at the Qing court. His texts in the Imperial Manuel of Birds firmly place each bird within a historical, poetic, and scientific context, some more than others. However, the accompanying texts on both birds also demonstrate a scientific approach as Wang Tubing's inscriptions record scientific facts including detailed measurements, the colorations and other characteristics. Hence, text and illustration are rendered factually and objectively, placing them and the album which they were part of firmly in the context of the other two monumental encyclopedias commissioned by the Kangxi emperor.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
