Vase; Imari, Japan, 18th century.

Vase; Imari, Japan, XVIII century.
Enameled and gilded porcelain mounted on gilded bronze of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 50 x 28 cm.
The piece presents the typical Japanese Imari decoration, whose main characteristic is the use of underglaze cobalt blue glaze, combined with other glazes over the glaze, mainly iron red and gilt. The more modern pieces will be somewhat more stereotyped, with a predominance of red, blue and gold instead of the broader palette of earlier periods, although the richness of the motifs is maintained. At the decorative level, the Imari is very free, with highly decorative compositions that occupy the entire space of the piece, combining different motifs and cartouches of various shapes, as we see here. There is no fixed scheme, different geometric patterns are mixed and combined with motifs inspired by nature. The background we see here, with different geometric patterns (inspired by Japanese printed fabrics, highly appreciated in Japanese artistic production) that overlap and intertwine, will be characteristic of this style. At the typological level, the profile that we see here in the mouths, wavy in reference to the flower of the chrysanthemum, the Japanese national flower, will be frequent in Imari.