11.
A ‘BLUE AND WHITE’ AMPHORA-FORM VASE
Ming dynasty, second half of the 16th century
33,8 cm high
Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, collezione Placido de Sangro (1829-1891).
Inv. n. 3599.
The form of this vase is particularly unusual and rare, drawing inspiration from the Sui/ Tang dynasty (7th century AD) amphora shaped glazed pottery vases, such as one from the George Eumorfopoulos collection in the British Museum (inv. n. 1910, 0614.1).
The body and neck are painted with foliate scrolls issuing lingzhi fungus, symbolic of immortality, mirrored in the fungus shaped overlapping lappets above the foot. The handles are in the form of stylised archaic dragons with bifurcated tails, inspired by archaic bronzes and jades as early as the Warring States period. The shoulders are painted with chi-dragons amongst ruyi-shaped clouds.
Similar motifs of lingzhi fungus and chi-dragons can be seen on mid-16th century ‘blue and white’ vessels, such as a tubular bottle (lingzhi) and a hexagonal bottle (chi-dragon) in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul (R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, 3 voll., London 1986, nn. 1022-1023).
This vase is an early example of the recovery of Tang dynasty ceramic shapes. The amphorae of that period served in fact as a model for the ceramists in Jingdezhen especially in the 18th century, a period during which the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors promoted with conviction a production of porcelain imitating ancient prototypes (see for example the ‘blue and white’ amphora-form vase, Yongzheng mark and period, in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London: R. Kerr, Chinese Ceramics. Porcelain of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), London 1986, p. 30, n. 13).
