186.
A ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ BOWL
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century
10 x 20 cm
Mark ……
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3702.
The exterior of the bowl decorated with a number of the ‘Hundred Antiquities’ (bogu), the interior of the rim with four lobed cartouches each with one object against a ground of lozenges and flower heads, the decoration painted in the enamels of the ‘Famille Verte’ palette.
The term bogu, usually translated in English as “Hundred antiquities”, refers to a very popular decorative motif which includes an unspecified number of objects of various types (vases, books, censers, but also flowers, miniaturized trees, and so on), each characterized by a particular symbolism, most of them in some ways related to antiques.
This pattern came to be used during the Northern Song dynasty, and could be related to the spread of the collectionism of ancient pre-dynastic bronzes, favoured by literati and aristocrats, and among them in particular by emperor Huizong who in 1123 commissioned to Wang Fu an illustrated catalogue of his collection, the “Drawings and Lists of all the Antiquities stored in the Xuanhe Palace” (Chongxiu Xuanhe bogu tulu), a title which contain the same term bogu.
