416.
A BRONZE BOTTLE
Ming dynasty, 16th-17th century
40,5 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4209.
This elegant bottle exemplifies the assimilation of archaic motifs and their combination with more recent decorative features. The shape and the dragon between the shoulder and the neck don’t belong infact to the repertory of ancient bronzes, but its low relief decoration of geometric patterns and stylized animals is instead inspired to pre-dynastic ritual bronzes.
Bottle vases of similar shape, with the application of in the round dragons between the shoulder and the neck, appear in the repertoire of Chinese ceramists already during the Song dynasty (see the item in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (inv. 36-29/2). Similar vessels were later produced in Jingdezhen at least from the sixteenth century: see, for example, the piece in the Palace Museum in Beijing, dated to the Jiajing period and characterized by a simple white glaze which elegantly contrasts with the red copper glazed dragon, or the ceramic bottle vase from the sixteenth century in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. n. 91.1.311). Towards the end of that century, also the Dehua kilns introduced in their production similar vases with dragons in relief (see the item again in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. n. 18.56.60; J. Ayers, Blanc de Chine. Divine Images in Porcelain, New York 2002, p. 63, n. 14, regarding a similar Dehua vase, specifies that bronze vases with analogue features were also made in that same period).
