435.
A LARGE CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL VASE, ZUN
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period
94 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 5339.
The archaistic shape inspired by bronze pre-dynastic vases, the whole body and the neck decorated with lotus flower scrolls in polychrome cloisonné enamels on a rich turquoise ground, the neck with again lotuses and taotie masks arranged in vertical bands, the circular base with horses, qilin and other animals amidst rocks and waves, four brass vertical flanges along body and neck.
As pointed out by Rose Kerr (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), the reasons to explain the great diffusion in cloisonné enamel art of archaistic shapes and decorative motifs are from one side the use of those objects mainly in religious contexts such as temples, where rituals were officiated according to precise regulations already developed in the very ancient times when archaic bronzes were still used, and on the other side the social status of who commissioned such objects, usually members of the highest élites of the country, including the emperor and his family.
However, notwithstanding the general aspect of many of the Ming and Qing dynasties cloisonné enamel pieces clearly reveals an inspiration from archaic bronzes, some details betray a more modern approach, as for example the combination in this zun vase of taotie masks with the lotus flowers spray on the body and the naturalistically rendered animals on the band near the base.
The dimensions of this vase are impressive, especially if compared to other known similar examples (H. Garner, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels, London 1962, p. 81, n. 50; C. Brown, Cloisonné. The Clague Collection, Phoenix 1980, pp. 64-65, n. 24; H. Brinker – A. Lutz, Chinesisches Cloisonné. Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Zürich 1985, n. 181; B. Quette (edited by), Cloisonné. Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, exhibition catalogue, New York 2011, p. 259, n. 70).
