A Large Wucai Vase

A Large Wucai Vase
China, Transitional period (1620 – 1683)
Height: 50.8 cm

Provenance: - Ex collection Dr. Hans Schneider, Meran
- Ex collection Ignazio Vok, Italy
- Private collection, the Netherlands

Wucai meaning five enamels or "five colour ware" is in reality mostly three enamels (red, green and yellow) together with cobalt blue and the white body of the porcelain, making a total of five.

This magnificent vase depicts Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West, together with her heavenly attendants amidst banana and wutong trees. Palace roofs can be seen emerging from the clouds in the sky. Xiwangmu is a Chinese goddess known from ancient times and the first historical information on her can be traced back to oracle bone inscriptions of the 15th century BC that record sacrifices to a "Western Mother".