391.
A PAIR OF TURQUOISE-GLAZED FIGURES OF BUDAI MOUNTED AS CANDLESTICKS
the figures Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century; the mount German, mid 18th century
11,5 cm high each
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. nn. 3685, 3692.
The two figures – originally though to be used as incense holders – seated on an oval base, wearing a wide robe which left uncovered the shoulders, the chest and the prominent belly, the right hand of both the deities on the correspondent knee, one with a rosary, the left hand holding the edge of a sack, the mount framing the bases with a lobed profile, the housings for the candles supported and decorated by groups of gilt bronze leaves, the sticks with branches of naturalistically painted flowers.
Related small sculptures are in the Porzellansammlung, Dresden, formerly in the collection of Augustus the Strong (1670-1733) (see for example inv. n. PO 4498).
A very similar pair of turquoise-glazed Budai mounted as candlesticks with a related German gilt bronze mount and painted metal Meissen flowers is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (see R. Kerr – L.E. Mengoni, Chinese Export Ceramics, London 2011, p. 91, n. 126); for another comparable pair in the British Royal collection, see J. Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 2 voll. London 2016, II, nn. 1444-1445; a pair of nearly identical turquoise-glazed figures of seated Budai is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (inv. GR 714-715).
