139.
A ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ ROULEAU VASE WITH GILT BRONZE MOUNT
the vase Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century; the mount probably French, second half of the 18th century
45 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4219.
The decoration on this vase consists of chilong dragons, peony sprays and round medallion with a flower head reserved on a red ground; the gilt bronze mount consisting toward the base of a tap coming out from a lion mask with a movable ring in its mouth, the shoulders underlined by a band of leaves with two loose ring handles, the cover with a flower tip.
This vase exemplifies a further possible destination of the gilded bronze mounts applied in Europe, assuming the specific function of a cistern.
The combination of the exuberant polychrome decoration of the porcelain with the richness of the mount of an already neoclassical taste, allows this object to integrate perfectly into the opulent European interiors of the eighteenth century.
A very similar decoration characterizes a pair of vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum, truncated in the higher section and enriched by a French gilt bronze mount between 1745 and 1749 (G. Wilson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain in the J. Paul Getty Museum, revisited edition, Los Angeles 1999, pp. 72-75, n. 14).
