142.
A ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ BALUSTER VASE, YEN YEN
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century
46 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3972.
The neck and the body of this vase are painted with scenes with military figures, almost certainly inspired by episodes in the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” (Sanguo Yanyi), a novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong who was active in the fourteenth century, largely based on the third-century “Annals of the Three Kingdoms” by Chen Shou.
The story tells in a fictional way the events which characterized the period that followed the end of the Han dynasty, with the division of the territory in the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu, until the reunification of the Jin dynasty in 280.
The novel, one of the most celebrated in the history of Chinese literature, was printed many times during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Some of the editions contains illustrations, such as the Xinkanjiaozheng gudaziben yinshi sanguozi tongsuyanyi (“A Newly Proofed Edition of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms”), published in 1591, and the Yixiantang huixiang Sanguozhi (or Sanguozhi Yanyi tu) which dates to the late Ming dynasty, noteworthy for the lavish quality of the images. However, stylistically, the exquisite prints in the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms in Illustrations”, published by the Dukuitang workshop with a preface dated to 1644 by Jin Renrui (1608-1661), a literary critic and a loyalist to Ming dynasty, shows more analogies with the scenes depicted on this vase.
The complex plot of the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, with thousands characters and a great number of events, became a widespread source of inspiration for decorators in Jingdezhen, especially during the reign of Kangxi emperor, when Mao Lun and Mao Zonggang published a reduced and simplified version which would remain the standard model of the text.
