28.
A ‘BLUE AND WHITE’ SLIP-DECORATED BOWL
Ming dynasty, first half of the 17th century
11,9 cm diam.
Da Ming Jiajing nianzhi six-character mark.
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3284.
The bowl is decorated around the body with a lotus pond in shades of blue, with the egret slip-decorated.
The lotus (lianhua) growing from a muddy pond, with its blossoms emerging pure, came to represent the Buddhist images of purity and rebirth.
The egret (lu) represents strength, purity, patience and long life.
The interior is similarly painted in blue and white with a pair of birds in a lotus pond, with the pair of birds possibly symbolising marital fidelity and happiness.
Such imagery was used in wares and different media as early as the Song dynasty and continuously to the Qing dynasty: see for example a pair of paintings of ‘lotus and water birds’, circa 1300, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. n. 1988.155a,b).
