422.
A CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL PEDESTAL WITH GILT BRONZE MOUNT
the plaque Ming dynasty, 16th century; the mount Qianlong period
6,5 x 35 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 5353.
The use of adapting older cloisonné pieces to newer mount is a classic feature in Chinese tradition, especially during the eighteenth century. Gilt bronze mounts with feet shaped as elephant’s heads were also appraised: see for example the fifteenth century cloisonné incense burner in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (B. Quette (edited by), Cloisonné. Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, exhibition catalogue, New York 2011, n. 122) and its later companion in the Palace Museum in Beijing (Li Jiufang, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Metal-bodied Enamel Ware/ Jinshutai falangqi, Hong Kong 2002, n. 112), both adorned with a Qianlong period mount with a base with three feet shaped as elephant’s heads very similar to those which support the piece here discussed, but without the flanges that show clear European Baroque stylistic features.
For some dishes with a similar decoration of cranes or herons, see H. Brinker – A. Lutz, Chinesisches Cloisonné. Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Zürich 1985, nn. 49-52.
