163.
A ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ FISH BOWL
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, late 17th–early 18th century
33,5 x 37 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3955.
Depictions of fishes in water provide a rebus for Yushui hexie, “May you be as harmonious as fish and water”, a symbolism that assumes the meaning of conjugal happiness if two fishes are depicted. The source for this could be find in Daoism, and in particular in some ideas of Zhuangzi (369-298 BC), who often used fishes to exemplify those creatures who reach happiness in harmony with their surrounding environment.
Furthermore, the term yu which generically identifies the fish is homophone of the one which identifies the word “abundance”.
Among the fishes, carps are the most represented in art, recognizable by the two barbels on the upper lip and the long dorsal fin. Carp is a widespread good auspicious symbol, because of the homophony of its name li with the two words for “profit” and “power, strenght”. Furthermore, it also represents the scholar who try to be successful in the civil service examinations, studying with that tenacity with which, according to a well known legend, every year a carp swims upstream on the Yellow River until it reaches the Dragon Gate where it will be itself transformed into a dragon.
Fishes are present in Chinese art since very ancient times (see for example the earthenwares from the Yangshao Neolithic culture at Banpo in Shaanxi: K. Chang, The Archaeology of Ancient China, New Haven and London, 1972, pp. 92-93, fig. 27). Much later, in the Jin dynasty they are in the repertory of the Cizhou kilns, as exemplified by a pillow in the Yamato Bunkakan Museum, Nara (G. Hasebe (edited by), Sekai Toji Zenshu [Ceramic Art of the World], 12, Song, Tokyo 1977, p, 242, n. 239).
In the context of Jingdezhen porcelain production, they appear as early as the Yuan period (see for example the famous ‘blue and white’ jar in the Osaka museum: Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics 1994, p. 54, n. 29).
In the Ming period, fishes as decorative motifs were particularly appreciated during the reign of Jiajing emperor, a fervent Daoist who certainly esteemed the symbolism relating to carps. Among the artists who frequented his court, following a painting tradition already begun in the Song dynasty, Liu Hai (active circa 1485-1525) is known also for his works depicting this fish (see the one in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Eight Dynasties of Chinese Paintings 1980, pp. 150-151, n. 129).
The wucai enamelled jars with the motif of carps swimming amidst lotuses produced during the Jiajing period are unanimously considered as masterpieces of Chinese porcelain (see for example the piece in the Palace Museum, Beijing: Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours. The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong 1999, p. 16, n. 15). Their brilliant polichrome decoration, together with the high symbolism of the subject, certainly were known by Jingdezhen ceramists active during the Kangxi period, a time which saw a growing popularity of this subject, painted above all with the enamels of the ‘Famille Verte’ palette, as the fish bowl here discussed.
