Pair of vases; China, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period (1662-1722)

Pair of vases; China, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period (1662-1722)
Pair of "gu" vases
Glazed and glazed "wucai" porcelain.
One of them has been restored
Measurements: 45,5 x 19 x 19 cm.

Pair of vases that respond to the archaic form called "gu", which evokes the ancient Chinese ritual bronzes of the Shang and Zhou period. Its profile is articulated in three distinct sections: a truncated cone base, a cylindrical central deposit and a neck that opens into a wide flared mouth. This deliberate recovery of archaic forms was especially appreciated during the reign of the Kangxi emperor, a period in which the imperial potteries of Jingdezhen reached one of their highest technical and artistic peaks.

The decoration belongs to the wucai or "five-color" style, a technique that combines cobalt blue underglaze painting with polychrome enamels applied over it in a second firing.

The surface of each vase is organized in horizontal registers. The upper register, of greater iconographic relevance, presents scenes of figures in palatial interiors with characters dressed in courtly attire. This type of figurative representations was frequent in the porcelain of the period and usually referred to famous literary dramas of great popularity, such as the "Xīxiāng Ji", the History of the West Wing attributed to Wang Shifu, whose scenes of gallantry and courtly life constituted one of the most recurrent iconographic repertoires of Kangxi porcelain.

The lower registers develop an equally canonical floral program, with peonies accompanied by rocks and peach branches with fruits that allude to longevity and Taoist paradises.