A LARGE GREEN-GLAZED ‘PHOENIX HEAD’ EWER AND COVERChina, Sui dynasty style47 cm highStanding on a round foot, the ovoid body rising to a splayed neck with wide mouth, the cover shaped as a phoenix head, a dragon clinging from the foot to the mouth to be used as handle, the whole external surface with a moulded decoration arranged in horizontal bands of vegetal meanders, lappets and round medallions with naked figures, the dark green glaze turning sparsely to lighter tones, the base unglazed. Provenance: ambassador Francesco Rausi.The shape and the decoration of this ewer is clearly inspired to metal prototypes of Central Asia (see D. Harper, in Splendeur des Sassanides, catalogo della mostra, Bruxelles 1993, pp. 103-104). An urn with similar shape, excavated in the Ji district of the Henan province, is in the Palace Museum in Beijing (see S. Masahiko – H. Gakuji, Zui Tō, (Sekai tōji zenshū, vol. 11), Tokyo 1976, pl. 6); another similar example is in the MAO Museum in Turin (M. Pirazzoli-t’Serstevens, edited by, L’arte per la vita nell’aldilà. Capolavori di arte antica cinese della collezione Meidaozhai. III. Le Sei Dinastie, la dinastia Sui e la dinastia Tang, Turin 2002, n. 334).