408.
A GOLD AND SILVER-INLAID TRIPOD INCENSE BURNER
Qing dynasty, 17th-18th century
7,1 x 18 x 13,4 cm
Shisou two-character mark.
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4812.
The incense burner (xianglu), with a form derived by archaic ding bronze vessels, has handles shaped as an extreme stylization of a dragon, the external surface with an archaistic decoration inlaid with gold and silver.
The Shisou two-character signature in clerical script which appears onto the base of this incense burner refers to a still misterious artist specialized in the casting of small sculpture of Buddhist deities and bronze items for the scholar’s studio. As in this case, they are usually decorated with thin inlays of silver and gold.
The name of Shisou doesn’t appear in the traditional written sources of the late Ming dynasty, such as for example the Zhangwu zhi (“Superfluous Things”) by Wen Zhenheng of 1637, or the Xiangjian (“A Commentary on Incense”) by Tu Long, or the Wenfang qiju jian (“A Commentary on Articles for the Scholar’s Studio”).
A tradition refers that Shisou was a Buddhist monk, but there no proofs to confirm this hypothesis. What is instead certain is the great numer of bronze pieces bearing the Shisou mark, which can be stylistically dated in a broad chronological span ranging from the mid-17th century to the 19th century.
Rose Kerr (R. Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, London 1990, p. 65) argues that the mark Shisou could be therefore referred to a company in Jiangnan rather to an individual artist.
