Rare and imposing wheel thrown two-handled 17th century Portuguese faience urn of oval, bulbous profile with gently curving shoulder rising to a defined neck. The sophisticated and unusual shape is delicately painted in cobalt blue pigment applied to a tin white glazed background.

The decorative scheme is dense, covering the entire body surface, clearly reflecting the “horror vacui” inherited from Islamic models. However, although unequivocally guided by oriental references, the artist has opted out for representing the two human figures in a westerner manner albeit within Chinese like landscapes.

On one side the elaborate depiction of a female figure with fruits on the headdress holding a large cornucopia that is also overflowing with fruits - symbolizing the Earth – in a background of trees and blossoming branches, with two hares shading under a bush and a Buddhist wheel placed by two birdcages, all in a perfect symbiosis of the various elements.

On the opposing surface one other female figure, in a long skirt and a tight waisted long sleeved bodice with lace cuffs and ruff, sits on a terrace holding a bird and surrounded by plants and flowers, a pomegranate tree, and a large flying bird of paradise.

Although it is possible to consider that the figure portrays the noblewoman that commissioned the piece, it is noticeable that it is attired in an out of fashion style, dating from a period before the production date of the urn, suggesting that it might instead depict an allegory to Spring, that was probably copied from a contemporary engraving.

The two scenes are separated by vertical rectangular panels placed beneath the handles, which are decorated with mascaron ornaments in a field of scrolls and vegetal motives within a cobalt blue ground. The shoulder is encircled by a wide band of daisies topped by a narrow band of filleted framed scrolls reaching up to the gently flaring lip.

The lower part of the urn is ringed by a band of lanceolate cartouches filled with palm leaves, inspired by the ruyi head patterns often found on decorative compositions of Ming period pieces.

For most of the 16th and 17th centuries Europeans had attempted to replicate the glazed hard paste of the porcelain that was being imported, in large quantities, from China. However, unable to unravel the manufacturing secrets for that highly admired and precious material, European potters, namely the Portuguese, settled for the production of fine paste faience pieces, which they decorated by adapting and reinterpreting the Ming Porcelain decorative motifs of deer, birds, flowers, fruits, figures and Buddhist symbols.

In the specific case of this urn it is possible to identify a combination of inspirational sources, which under iconographic analysis, reveal a complex web of meanings. The Baroque period favoured the use of allegory and symbolic language that was being propagated by illustrations and printed books, from which the artisans copied the symbols supposed to be decoded by the viewer, simultaneously turning them into a type of immaterial collective heritage. In this recognizable symbolic language the Earth is portrayed by an abundance of flowers and fruits, translating the ephemerality of substance, as well as the evanescence of things and of earthly pleasures.

In his Treaty of Iconology, Cesare Ripa uses them as symbolic attributes of senses, inasmuch as they allow us to savour, smell and observe.

Both flowers and fruits are symbolic of nature’s beauty and creative power, as opposed to human made, thus inspiring us to aim for the sublime and the divine. In this context, the female figure is placed in an idyllic scenery of flowers, fruits and exotic flying birds, interacting with the bird that sits candidly on her hand, which in this context represents the spiritual, while the bird in flight inspires an escape from the earthly world that, on separating from earth, becomes almost ethereal.

The flowers surrounding the figure with exposed frontal or profiled corollae, allude to Hope, growing from deep inside the earth but blossoming in Light, in an analogy to the Lost Paradise Garden, while the two hares taking cover under a tree, stand for symbols of fertility.

The ripe, naturally red coloured, pomegranates allude to Resurrection and Hope while the palms refer to the Victory of Christ over death, in Christian conventional iconographic models.

Invulgar garrafa de faiança portuguesa, da segunda metade do seculo XVII, decorada a azul-cobalto e manganés sobre esmalte estanífero.

O bojo rodado forma quatro faces achatadas, definindo uma banda horizontal contínua, preenchidas por duas figuras de chineses e dois animais. As figuras chinesas masculinas estão de pé, em lados opostos, ambas segurando chapéus-de-sol, alternando com os animais, um gamo de pé e uma gazela pousada numa rocha. Tal como na garrafa anterior, estes elementos decorativos estão separados por ornatos florais variados de “desenho miúdo”. O friso inferior do bojo encontra-se acentuado por “faixa barroca” e o anel que envolve o colo está preenchido por pétalas dispostas radialmente.

O gargalo alto, com bocal divergente, apresenta-se decorado por volutas invertidas, desenhadas de perfil, que aparecem noutras garrafas deste período.

Esta é outra interessantíssima peça de faiança portuguesa que documenta bem a larga difusão da porcelana chinesa em Portugal e o acentuado ascendente decorativo que a mesma exerceu na produção nacional de todo o século XVII, através da presença frequente de figuras e ornatos orientais, quase sempre interpretados pelos decoradores portugueses com um misto de ingenuidade e graça, ao contrário dos pintores holandeses de cerâmica, de formação artística mais erudita e académica, copiando com menor fantasia a decoração das peças chinesas.