160.
A ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ CACHEPOT
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century
16,5 x 19 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4009.
Butterflies (hudie) –in this cachepot arranged in a free composition, each of them painted with fineness of details – are generally associated with summer and beauty. Furthermore, the word for butterfly is homophone with the terms which identify a seventy or a eighty years old person, the motif with a profusion of butterflies becoming for this reason also a wish for a long life.
Butterflies are also related to dreams because of the famous parable by the philosopher Zhuangzhi (fourth century BC) who dreamt to be a butterfly and then, when he woke up, he asked to himself if could be also possible he was a butterfly dreaming to be a man.
Butterflies were usedas decorative motif on porcelain from already the early Ming dynasty, often in combination with flowers. However, it became more common from the late phase of the Kangxi reign, as exemplified by the piece here discussed, reaching a peak of popularity during the Guangxu period when the ‘100 butterflies’ motifs was one of the favourite as a wish of ‘100 blessings’.
A Kangxi period rouleau vase with a similar decoration of butterflies is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours. The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong 1999, n. 122); see also another vase with this motif formerly in the Stamen collection (The Colors of Earth. Kangxi Era Porcelain from the Stamen Collection, exhibition catalogue, Boston 2002, n. 22).
