129.
A ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ BALUSTER VASE, GUANYIN ZUN
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century
41 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3828.
The decoration on the body of this vase consists of different species of dragons and butterflies amidst rectangular, round and leaf-shaped cartouches, some of them with flowers-birds-and-taihu-rocks compositions, the others with mythological animals amidst trees, rocks, flowers and fences, the shoulder with four lobed cartouches with good omen objects against a ground of lozenges, the neck with a series of parallel bands with ruyi heads, leiwen frieze, spirals, dots and stylized vegetal motifs.
The theme of mythical animals is rather common on ‘Famille Verte’ porcelain produced during the Kangxi period. The ceramists in Jingdezhen certainly had repertoires of images at their disposal from which to draw inspiration. The most widespread was probably the Sancai tuhui (“Collected Illustrations of the Three Realms”), the encyclopedia compiled by Wang Qi and his son Wang Siyi, originally published in 1609 and later reprinted many times. Volumes 91, 92 and 93 of this book include a number of detailed illustrations accompanied by brief explicatory text of real and fantastic creatures, some of them could be associated with the animals depicted on this vase.
