399.
A GOLD, SILVER AND MALACHITE-INLAID BRONZE VASE, HU
Yuan/ Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century
32,8 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 5315.
This vessel is inspired both in shape and decoration to ritual hu vases from the Eastern Zhou dynasty (see for example the vase dated to 5th-4th century BC in the Cleveland Museum of Art with gold inlays, and the item in the Royal Ontario Museum with copper inlays, both with abstract, published in J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York 1995, respectively figg. 71 and 74).
Respect to the ancient prototypes, the present vase has a higher base, a more ovoid body and the mouth undelined by a rib; some of the Zhou dynasty models still have the cover which probably was always present.
The stylized inlaid decoration in this later bronze vase has lost all the ritual meaning which invariably characterized the ancient pieces. The use of malachite, even if already adopted in pre-dynastic pieces, in this vase could be interpreted also as an artifice to imitate the archaic green patina.
It is an example of a production already developed in the Song dynasty, a period in which there was an explosion of interest in antiquarianism. The ancient models were known also thank to texts and catalogues of the most important collections then formed also in the imperial context.
A very similar archaistic hu vase, also dated to Yuan/ Ming dynasty, is in the British Museum, London (M. Cowell – S. La Niece – J. Rawson, A Study on Later Chinese Metalwork, London 2003).
