171.
A ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ DISH
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century
39 cm diam
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3578.
The centre of the interior with a composition of peonies, magnolia and crab apple flowers inside an ogivated medallion reserved on a green ground with small dots and floral sprays, the barbed rim with eight lobed cartouches against a geometric ground with ruyi‘s heads, a lozenge inside two concentric circles to the centre of the base.
The composition with peony (fuguihua), magnolia (yulan) e crab apple flowers (haitang) is known as yutang fugui, which can be translated as “Wealth and rank in the Jade Hall” because of the homophony of tang character in the word haitang with another tang character meaning “Jade Hall”, being this last term a literary reference to the famous imperial Hanlin Academy founded by the emperor Huizong (1082-1135). The pun can be therefore interpreted as a congratulation for graduation.
