12.
A ‘BLUE AND WHITE’ DOUBLE-GOURD VASE AND COVER, HULUPING
Ming dynasty, second half of the 16th century
72 cm high
Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, collezione Placido de Sangro (1829-1891).
inv. n. 4185.
This double-gourd shaped vase is rare, and no other identical example appears to have been published. Furthermore, whilst many double gourd vases dating to the Jiajing to Wanli periods are extant, few of them retain their original cover.
The double-gourd shape is highly symbolic in Chinese art. In Daoism, the double lobe form represents heaven and earth. It is also associated with immortality as the ‘elixir of immortality’ is said to be produced through distillation of red cinnabar in the upper chamber and mercury in the lower one. One the Eight Daoist Immortals, Li Tieguai, is often depicted carrying a double-gourd in which he carries the elixir. Furthermore, as the gourd contains many seeds it is also symbolic of the wish for many offspring and the continuity of the family. The first character hu of “gourd” in Mandarin (hulu) is homophone for the word hu meaning “guard” and the word hu meaning “blessing”.
The lower section of the vase is painted with four mythical beasts each carrying a medallion enclosing one of the Eight Trigrams amidst cloud-scrolls above crashing waves.
Each of the Eight Trigrams (ba gua) consists of the combination of the unbroken line and the broken line, the first representing the yang principle and the second the yin principle, the two complementary opposites on which all Chinese cosmogony is based.
A pair of trigrams constitutes a hexagram, and the resulting sixty-four hexagrams are considered the graphic representation of all phenomena of nature, man and divination. The Yijing (“The Book of Changes”), the ancestral reference text for divination, is based precisely on the duality between yin and yang and on the combination of the sixty-four hexagrams.
Used as decoration from very ancient times, and apart from the specific meaning that invests each of them, the Eight Trigrams symbolize harmony and perfection.
The neck of the vase is painted with quatrelobed cartouches each enclosing a crane in flight.
Cranes (he) symbolise the wish for achieving a high rank, but also long life as the crane is often depicted alongside Shoulao, the God of Longevity.
The upper lobe is painted with four medallions each enclosing a phoenix amidst clouds, symbolising high virtue and grace. Surrounding the medallions are beribboned auspicious symbols amidst peony sprays, all below a band of ruyi lappets around the rim, conveying the wish for long life. The cover is surmounted by a lotus-bud finial, with the lotus being one of the Eight Buddhist Emblems, symbolising purity.
