152.
A ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ SPOUTED AND HANDLED JAR
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, late 17th century
29 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3706.
The style of decoration which appears on this jar, consisting of scenes with large female figures elegantly dressed playing with children in a garden just outside a pavilion, begun to appear on Jingdezhen porcelain from the early Kangxi period, remaining in the repertory of Chinese ceramists until the end of the seventeenth century.
The shape of this jar, with the short spout and four small moulded handles, is rather rare in the ambit of Kangxi period production. Jar with similar small handles moulded on the shoulders were produced in the kilns of Zhangzhou already during the Wanli period, explicitly destined to South-east Asian countries (M.A. Pinto de Matos, A Casa das Porcelanas. Cerâmica Chinesa da Casa-Museu Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves, Lisboa, Lisbon 1996, pp. 144-145, n. 67), and also in Jingdezhen in those same years (J. Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 2 voll. London 2016, I, p. 37, n. 18).
However, the primary model for this kind of vessel with handles and spout dates back to the Tang dynasty, especially produced in changsha kilns in Hunan province (see for example the one reproduced by He Li, Chinese Ceramics. The New Standard Guide, London 1996, p. 102, n. 193).
The large reserves with figures on the body alternate with compositions of rocks, flowers and butterflies, the shoulder with four small lobed cartouches with auspicious objects on a geometrical ground.
