155.
A PAIR OF ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ HEXAGONAL VASES AND COVER WITH GILT METAL MOUNT
the vases Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century; the mount European, late 18th–early 19th century
34 cm high each
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. nn. 3727, 3729.
Similar vases, with the original hexagonal neck ending with a flared mouth, belonged to the collection of Augustus the Strong (1670-1733), now in the Porzellansammlung in Dresden (inv. PO 3009-3010); see also the pair in the collection of Anastácio Gonçalves in Lisbon (M.A. Pinto de Matos, A Casa das Porcelanas. Cerâmica Chinesa da Casa-Museu Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves, Lisboa, Lisbon 1996, pp. 216-217, n. 121) and the item with its original cover in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. n. C.759&A-1917).
This kind of decoration have made an essential contribution to conveying in Europe an image of China as an idyllic country where beautiful ladies lived in fascinating contexts, among luxuriant gardens and groups of elegant objects. The great success that Chinese porcelain achieved in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries prompted many of the European ceramic manufacturers, including Delft in the Netherlands, to introduce Chinoiserie themes explicitly inspired by Asian pottery into their repertoires
