A BRONZE AND CLOISONNé ENAMELS FIGURE OF ZHANG GUOLAO WITH HIS DONKEY Japan, 19th century40 cm highThe sculpture depicting a bearded man on a donkey, both with the head turning left, the figure with a large domed hat on his head and a ruyi sceptre in his left hand, the dress and the harness with a polychrome enamels cloisonné decoration and some inlaid red glass small spheres.Provenance: the collection of a Swiss-Neapolitan noble family, acquired in early ‘30s of the 20th century. One of the Daoist Eight Immortals (Baxian), Zhang Guolao is usually depicted together with a donkey that could cover a thousand miles in a day; when it doesn’t need, the animal go into a small container that the deity brings always with him.