144.
A ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ BEACKER VASE, GU
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, late 17th century
47 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3994.
Scenes similar to the one depicted on the upper side of this vase, with a lady and a man standing along the crenellation of a fortified building with domed turrets while a group of ladies and a young man near a crane are represented in the underlying courtyard, can be seen on massive ‘blue and white’ vases such as those belonged to the collection of Augustus the Strong (A. Leth, Catalogue of Selected Objects of Chinese Art in the Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen 1959, n. 121) and the pair in the British Royal collection (J. Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 2 voll. London 2016, I, pp. 174-175, nn 350-351).
The shape of this vase is a direct derivation of archaic bronzes used during the Shang and Zhou dynasties to contain wine for the ritual ceremonies. The shape became rather common for porcelain vessels from the early Qing dynasty, also for pieces explicitly destined to export to Europe where they are also known as ‘trumpet vase’. Porcelain vases were also used in those groups of items known with the definition of guarniture de chaminée, produced from the late seventeenth century in Japan too.
A comparable gu vase is in Lanhydrock, Cornwall (inv. n. NT 880976); see also the jar with a similar decoration in the Princesshof Museum, Leeuwarden (inv. OKS 1957-001).
