D2543. Polychrome Figure of a Seated Putai

Delft, circa 1720

Wearing a blue and yellow delineated robe loosely draped to reveal his belly and patterned with iron-red dotted clusters, modeled seated on an low oval blue base reserved with yellow and iron-red flower scroll work.

DIMENSIONS
Height: 12 cm. (4.7 in.)

NOTE
APutai is the sixteenth and final bodhisattva in Chinese Buddhism, representing a saint who must experience one more earthly existence before achieving enlightenment. A monk who lived around 900 A.D., Putai was canonized in the sixteenth century. He is typically depicted, as in this example, as a cheerful, rotund, and usually seated man with a bald head and large, elongated ears. He wears a robe that leaves his shoulders, neck, and upper back exposed, while from the front, it reveals his chest and prominent belly. Similar figures can be found in red Delftware, and both the Delftware and red versions are derived from models of Chinese Blanc de Chine or Jingdezhen porcelain.

SIMILAR EXAMPLES
This figure belongs to a group that includes similar model figurines. For instance, a figure seemingly made from the same mold, decorated in blue and wearing a bead necklace, is part of the Groninger Museum’s collection (inv. no. 1988.0008). Another example, crafted in red stoneware with a shoe placed in front of it, is also in the Groninger Museum’s collection (inv. no. 1988.0007). The red stoneware figure appears to have been inspired by a blanc de Chine figurine, also in the Groninger Museum (inv. no. 1987.0123), which similarly features a shoe. Notably, both Delft figurines share an identical placement of the ventilation hole.

A Putai of the same model, with similar details and colors but featuring a garniture set in front of him and marked with the initials “G N,” is in a German private collection. Given the connection with red stoneware figurines, the initials “G N” might refer to Guillaume Nieullet. Employed as a pottery carver, particularly known for his work on red stoneware teapots, it is suggested that he may have also crafted “rariteiten” or carved figurines. However, no objects with his signature have been conclusively identified so far.