401.
A GOLD AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE ‘TWO BIRDS’ VESSEL, ZUN
Ming dynasty, late 16th-17th century
18 x 20 x 18 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4835.
Even if the shape of this vessel clearly betrays an inspiration from ancient prototypes, the model doesn’t appear in any of the catalogues of antiquities published during the Song dynasty, the period which signs the rediscovery of Classicism promoted by the rise of Neoconfucianism.
The subject of two birds (shuangji) could be interpreted as a symbol of conjugal love, a theme expecially common in relation to mandarin ducks. In this vessel the bodies of the two bird are joined side-by-side, with the open beaks forming the mouth of the vase, the details of the feathers and plumage enriched by a fine arrangement of the silver and gold inlays.
Ewers shaped as a pair of mandarin ducks were made in great number in Jingdezhen during the fifteenth century, mainly destined to the scholar’s studio, as recorded by Sun Chengze (1592-1576) in his Yanshanzhai Zaji (“Jottings from the Inkstone Mountain Studio”), following a taste that mainly spread during the Xuande reign (M. Crick, Chinese Trade Ceramics for South-East Aasia from the 1st to the 17th century. Collection of Ambassador and Mrs Charles Müller, Milan 2010, pp. 252-253, n. 145: the author illustrates an example of these ewers, late 15th–early 16th century, shaped as two joined mandarin ducks in the Baur Foundation, Geneve).
A very similar vessel is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. 31.49.3); see also the comparable item in the Cernuschi Museum, Paris (M. Maucuer, Bronzes de la Chine impériale des Song aux Qing, Paris 2013, p. 95, n. 46).
