Further images
A superbly realised continuous scene containing two figures in a mountainous, sunlit, craggy landscape, one of the figures, grotesquely and fascinatingly drawn, his head tipped up, with prominent nostrils, half open mouth and bulging eyes, the sinews of his legs, knees and feet detailed with extraordinary clarity, his garments with similar exquisite detailing, his trousers with cell work decoration, the sleeves and body of his shirt painted to show the billowing folds; in his right hand a fluttering wheel shaped kite, on the other side of a craggy and mountainous landscape with delicate branches issuing from the rocks, another figure his left hand resting on his hip (perhaps Guan Ti,) holding aloft in his right hand a staff, with serpent writhing at its top, the figure magnificently apparelled in richly decorated layered garments and headgear standing in a terraced garden strewn with "V" shaped grasses and finely detailed coniferous plants springing from stylized rockwork
Literature
For similar examples of this form of vase, sometimes called rolwagen see Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: The Ming And The Qing Dynasties, Christiaan J.A. Jorg, in collaboration with Jan van Campen, Philip Wilson in association with The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1997, pp 78-78, plates 66 & 67 a/b.
