vase BM-1963-0422.7

Period:Qing dynasty Production date:1770-1790 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, painted, underglazed,
Subjects:landscape
Dimensions:Height: 37.50 centimetres

Description:
‘Famille rose’ vase with romantic scenes. This tall vase is decorated with two romantic figure scenes in large oval cartouches between flower sprays and pastoral vignettes. The main scenes show on one side a young man descending a ladder to place a bird’s nest in his lover’s apron with an open bird cage to one side, and on the other an amorous couple with a pair of caged hens, both couples surrounded by well-painted landscape settings and framed by garlands of flowers and butterflies painted in underglaze-blue and gold. The smaller vignettes show a man fishing in a river, and another walking his dog in the countryside.
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall and Krahl 1994:The escape of birds from their cages is an allusion to the loss or potential loss of virginity (Holmes, 1991, p. 98). This theme is emphasized by the secluded settings and by the youths’ unbuttoned shirts. The main designs are both based on prints by the Venetian painter andengraver Jacopo Amigoni (1675-1752), who worked in England between 1729 and 1739. The former is entitled ‘Air’ and comes from a series of the Four Elements, the latter is entitled ‘Summer’ and is part of a Four Seasons’ group. Contemporary French artists such as Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743), Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), and Francois Boucher (1703-70) are well known for similar romantic paintings. Amigoni’s work was not only copied onto Chinese porcelain but was also used at ceramic manufactories in Europe, and related designs arerecorded from Venetian, German and Russian porcelain, from Dutch Delft faience and Spanish pottery, and from English ceramics made at Worcester, Coalport and Battersea (Toppin, 1946, pp. 266 – 76). A covered box enamelled in rose-pink with the print ‘Air’, made at the Staffordshire kilns in England is also in the British Museum (BM 1895.0603.82).