|
Tripod censer with flat, unglazed base. The interior centre unglazed, the sides flaring and with a projected band, the rim thickened. The short legs moulded and painted with ruyi-heads. Around the sides, leaning on rocks in front of a fence, three haloed Daoist figures, their robes with ribbons lifted by the wind. Around the rim diapers and three cartouches enclosing a bird on a peach spray.
The figures are painted in strong outlines filled in with a wash in several cloudy tones of blue. They are at leisure, leaning against a rock, one of them reading a book. The manner of rendering as if caught by the wind is a mid 15th century convention but the border and the painting suggests a later date. Representations of Daoist immortals are common on porcelain of the period and reflect emperor Jiajings preoccupation with the search for the elixir of life in order to attain immortality. Iconography with regard to this subject matter continued to appear on porcelain for many decades.
|
)
