193.
A ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ ENAMELED BISCUIT EWER SHAPED AS A DEER
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, late 17th century
28 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3796.
The inventory of Chinese and Japanese porcelain in Burghley House compiled in 1688 registered “2 staggs” displayed over the chimney in “Lord Exeter’s Dressing Roome” and “2 Browne painted Staggs” over the chimney of the “Dininge Roome”. While Oliver Impey (2002, pp. 118-119) associated the second entry with Japanese porcelain pieces, supporting this attribution with a description which appeared in the catalogue of the sale of a part of the Burghley House collection curated by Christie’s in 1959 (lot 22: “AN IMPORTANT PAIR OF JAPANESE FIGURES OF A STAG AND A DOE, recumbent with their heads turned, partly decorated with medallions and hair markings on a pale aubergine ground-9 in. long-Arita-late 17th century”), it is not impossible that the first “2 staggs” could be examples of a Chinese production, probably similar to the piece here discussed (A. Du Boulay, Christie’s Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford 1984,p. 291, pl. 3, for a comparable pair of deer-shaped ewers with their original curved spout).
The similar deer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv. 24.80.257) has the original small domed cover, here substituted by the wood corn; see also the comparable sculpture in the Porzellansammlung in Dresden which differs for a simpler green glaze (inv. n. PO 3359). An ewer in the form of a hare similar to this is in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen (J. Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 2 voll. London 2016, I, p. 257, n. 546).
The deer (lu) appears in traditional Chinese iconography since the late Shang dynasty, becoming part of the sphere of Taoism in later times, associated with the cult of immortality, as it was believed to have the ability to find the lingzhi fungus which gave long life, absorbing its powers through the horns which in fact are still today considered effective remedies in traditional Chinese medicine.
For these same reasons, the deer is often depicted together with the pine tree, also a widespread symbol of longevity, and in the company of Luxing, the God of Rank and Emolument, and Shoulao, the God of Longevity.
