358.
A LANGYAO COPPER RED-GLAZED BALUSTER VASE
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century
35 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3420.
During the reign of Kangxi, the kilns in Jingdezhen finally succeeded in producing a brilliant red glaze using copper. The attempt was to imitate the extraordinary pieces of the Xuande period, when this kind of glaze was known as jihong (“sacrificial red”) because its use was mainly destined to the Chaoritan, the Altar of the Sun, whose rites included red tools, a colour associated with happiness and celebration.
The Qing dynasty copper red glaze is known as langyao, a term derived by Lang Tingji, superintendent at Jingdezheng from 1705 to 1712, who is credited to have experimented different recipes for monochrome glazes, and among them the difficult red.
Langyao glaze is know also with the French definition ‘sang de boeuf’, “ox blood”. From the late eighteenth century it was imitated by most of the European porcelain factories.
