2.
A ‘BLUE AND WHITE’ MOONFLASK VASE, BIANHU
Ming dynasty, Zhengde period
34,2 cm high
Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, collezione Placido de Sangro (1829-1891).
inv. n. 3737.
This vase, also known as a ‘pilgrim’ flask, was made at the beginning of the sixteenth century during the Zhengde reign.
Whilst moonflask are known in metal form from as early as the Han dynasty in China, this form was more closely inspired by Islamic metal and potter prototypes of the Mamluk and Ayyubid period of the twelfth and thirteenth century (see for example a pottery flask, 1341-1345, with related tall tapering tubular neck, in the National Museum of Damascus: O. Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London 2004, pp. 120-127). This form presents a departure from the early fifteenth century flasks of the Yongle and Xuande period, which had more convex front and back, more generous handles and a shorter garlic-head mouth.
The vase is painted on each side in the centre with a lotus blossom encircled by a meandering lotus scroll with each of the eight blossoms supported on or suspended from one of the Eight Buddhist Emblems, the bajixiang. The outer border is decorated with four phoenixes in flight amidst the foliate floral scroll. Each of the lotus petals around the tubular mouth is decorated with a pomegranate (shiliu), which given its numerous seeds represents the wish for longevity and abundance of blessings and children.
A similar flask, but with bosses on the sides, similarly painted with phoenixes, but with a conch in the centre surrounded by ruyi-heads enclosing lingzhi, is in the Tehran Archaeological Museum (J.A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington D.C. 1956, n. 29.459); two additional ones from the Ardebil Shrine are published by T. Misugi (Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East: Topkapi and Ardebil, Hong Kong 1981, vol. 3, pl. A101); another flask, with a similar central medallion, previously in the von Pflugk family, Castle of Strehla, near Dresden, Germany, from about 1683 to sometime after 1938, and then Sir Percival David Collection, and now in the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, is published in the Mostra d’arte cinese (exhibition catalogue, Venice 1954, p. 180, n. 664); a fifth example, but with reduced neck, painted with four of the Eight Buddhist Emblems on each of the two main sides, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. n.1335-1876); a sixth flask, also with side bosses, the neck reduced, with a similar central medallion encircled by ruyi-heads and lingzhi funguses and a further band with phoenix, is in the British Museum (J. Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of the Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London 2001, pp. 179-180, n. 7:5); and a seventh example is in the Topkapi Saray, Istanbul, with reduced foot and neck, painted with a similar central medallion encircled by phoenixes and emblems (R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, 3 voll., London 1986: II, n. 657).
