400.
A GOLD AND SILVER-INLAID ‘HEAVENLY BIRD’ RITUAL VESSEL, ZUN
Ming dynasty, 16th-17th century
16,4 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4829.
The shape of this vessel is a late interpretation of zun zoomorphic containers already in use from the Shang dynasty. Even the decoration, and the inlay technique with which it is applied, recall archaic bronze models from the Warring States period. However, the specific archaic source of inspiration for bronzes shaped as a bird with a vase on its back is still not known.
This shape is in fact not specifically recorded in the catalogues of some of the most important collections that were forming from the Song dynasty, as a consequence of the growing interest for antiquities, also stimulated by the excavation of ancient sites. The illustrations included in these texts inspired artists and craftsmen in the creation of objects with forms and decorations of archaic taste.
The earliest of these catalogues is the Kaogu tu (“Illustrated Research on Archeology”) compiled in 1092 by Lu Dalin. However, the best known of them is the Chongxiu Xuanhe bogu tulu (“Drawings and Lists of all the Antiquities stored in the Xuanhe Palace”), compiled by Wang Fu and commissioned by Emperor Huizong (1082-1135) around 1123, in which 840 bronzes are illustrated, including a goose-shaped container dated to the Zhou dynasty (R. Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, London 1990, p. 16, published this illustration from the 1588 edition of the catalogue, used it as a comparison with a similar container from the Song dynasty in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London).
These illustrated volumes continued to be a a source of inspiration also during the Ming and Qing dynasties when the taste for antiquities spread exponentially, starting to include even the archaic-style production of the Song period as model to imitate.
During the Qing dynasty vessels with this specific bird and vase shape were realized also in other materials such as cloisonné enameled metal (see the piece in the National Palace Museum, Through the Prism of the Past: Antiquarian Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th Century, Taipei 2003, p. 191, n. III-60), porcelain (see the Qianlong period item in the Palace Museum, Beijing: Views of Antiquity in the Qing Imperial Palace, Macau. 2005, pp. 182-183, n. 58) and jade (see the example in the Brooklyn Museum, New York, inv. 63.6.30). The Qianlong jade group with a bird and vase in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (Through the Prism of the Past: Antiquarian Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th Century, Taipei 2003, p. 92, n. III-61) exemplifies a further version of this iconography because of the presence of a pair of wheels in the lower side. An archaic bronze group with bird, vase and wheels dated to the Han dynasty is illustrated in the [Qianding] Xiqing gujian (“A Catalogue of the Imperial Antiques for His Majesty’s Connoisseurship”), a catalogue of the bronzes in the collection of Qianlong emperor compiled between 1749 and 1755 under the supervision of Liang Shizheng (R. Kerr, A Reverence from the Past: Influences from Chinese Antiquity, in B. Quette (edited by), Cloisonné. Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, exhibition catalogue, New York 2011, pp. 81-103, p. 89, n. 5.15 published this illustration from the 1908 edition of the Xiqin gujian as a comparison with two Qianlong cloisonné enameled metal similar groups, one in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (fig. 5.13), the other in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York (fig. 5.14).
The bird in this vessel, similar to a phoenix, is known as tianji, literally “heavenly chicken”. The reason of this name is that the second character ji (chicken) is a pun for ji that means good fortune. Furthermore, the rooster is a symbol of high rank because the second character of the word for its cockcomb (jiguan) is a pun for guan that means official. Also the vase has many good omen connotations, such as an auspicious for peace and as a symbol of the container for the elixir of long life.
A very similar vessel is in the Asia Art Museum in San Francisco (inv. 2003.11); see also the comparable pieces in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (Through the Prism of the Past: Antiquarian Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th Century, Taipei 2003, p. 49, n. I-24; p. 175, III-43; p. 190, n. III-59: two of them with a handle attached to the vase which allows their use as a water dropper) .
