36.
A ‘BLUE AND WHITE’ FOUR-LOBED TRAY
Ming dynasty, Tianqi-Chongzhen period
17 x 17 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4215.
Made to be exported to Japan, this ko-sometsuke tray – probably a jikiroku, a “food vessel”, used as a part of the kaiseki, the light food course occurring during the Tea Ceremony (Chanoyu) – is decorated with a scene with two lovers escaping from a pavilion where an old man with a book in his right hand is watching them.
This decoration is probably inspired by an event told in the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” (Sanguo Yanyi), a very popular novel written in the fourteenth century by Luo Guanzhong, set during the final years of the Han dynasty and the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period. The lady depicted in this tray is therefore Diaochan, one of the Four Beauties of Chinese tradition, who was persuaded by the high official Wang Yun to have a romance with the warrior Lu Bu with the aim to kill his foster father, the tyrannical Dong Zhuo, who had adopted her as one of his concubines.
