415.
A BRONZE ‘EIGHT IMMORTALS’ BOWL
Ming dynasty, 16th-17th century
6 x 16,2 x 13,1 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4817.
The four-lobed oval body of the bowl presents on the external surface the figures of the Eight Immortals (baxian) raising from a ground of stylized waves. The deities are cast three-dimensionally, with the heads well protruding beyond the rim of the bowl.
Vessels with relief decoration of figures were produced already during the Tang dynasty, inspired by similar metal models from Persia (see for example the eight-faceted silver cup illustrated by Rosemary Scott in Imperial Taste. Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation, exhibition catalogue (Los Angeles), San Francisco 1989, pp. 48-49, n. 23).
This technical feature became popular in ceramic during the Yuan dynasty, expecially in the kilns of Longquan, with the production of vases characterized by the typical céladon glaze together with unglazed biscuit panels with a moulded relief decoration often depicting the Eight Immortals (see for example the vase in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, illustrated in Y. Mino – K. Tsiang, Ice and Green Clouds: Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis 1986, pp. 202-203, n. 82, and the jar in the Brooklyn Museum, New York, inv. 52.49.33).
High relief decoration of the Eight Immortals was in the repertory of Jingdezhen ceramists also in the last period of the Ming dynasty, developed in different ways, for example with polychrome enamels on biscuit (see the bowl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. n. 45.42.2) or in combination with painted cobalt blue motifs (see the bowl and cover in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: C.J.A. Jörg, in collaboration with J. Van Campen, Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The Ming and Qing Dynasties, London 1997, p. 49, n. 31).
The bronze ewer in the Museum für Asiatische Kunst in Cologne (inv. C 2018, 438), with an ear handle and dragon shaped spout, has very similar high relief figures of the Eight Immortals.
