247.
A ‘FAMILLE ROSE’ LARGE DISH
Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period
….. cm diam
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. …..
The scene on this dish is inspired by the Xixiang ji, “The Romance of Western Wing”, the very popular novel from the thirteenth century by Wang Shifu that was used countless times as decoration for porcelain from the late Ming dynasty onward and until 1753, when emperor Qianlong decided to ban the Xixiang ji and the Shuihu zuan (“The Water Margin”) because he considered them “dirty and evil books” (Yibin 2002, p. 75) .
The main characters of the story, Zhang Gong and Cui Yongzheng, are here depicted during the secret meeting in the garden of the Monastery of Universal Salvation where they both lived. Unexpectedly, the beautiful lady, here accompanied as usually by the faithfully Hongniang, didn’t reserve to the young man the reception he aspected to have. The disappointment was so strong that Zhang felt in a severe lovesickness, until Yingying later decided to meet him again.
The scene is arranged into a large partially unfolded scroll shaped cartouche with a four floral sprig on each side.
