425.
A CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL TRIPOD INCENSE BURNER, DING
Ming dynasty, 16th century
11,5 x 15,5 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 5263.
Supported by three gilt metal cabriole legs, the flattened globular body surmounted by a short cylindrical neck, the splayed mouth with two interlaced handles, the external surface adorned with an animated composition of lotus flowers enamelled in green, yellow, red and white against a turquoise ground, the neck with a band of wires shaped as spirals, feet, mouth and handles are probably a later addition.
The shape of this censer is described in the Xuande yiqi tupu (“Illustrated catalogue of the Ritual Vessels of the Xuande Period”), a text dated to 1600 circa which aimed to illustrate the ritual vessels in the imperial palaces in 1428, as “palace censer in the shape of a court official’s hat”, probably because of the upright handles which resembles a mandarin’s hat (R. Kerr, A Reverence from the Past: Influences from Chinese Antiquity, in B. Quette (edited by), Cloisonné. Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, exhibition catalogue, New York 2011, pp. 81-103, p. 94). Censers with this form were realized already in the Yuan dynasty, becoming very popular during the fifteenth century.
