Dish with Three Friends of Winter

China

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 204

Plum blossoms, which are among the first plants to flower in the early spring, are often associated with the evergreen pine and bamboo and are known as the Three Friends of Winter, a motif symbolic of Confucian virtues such as endurance, modesty, and fortitude. The shape of the dish and the style of decoration are characteristics often associated with works made for the court in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Dish with Three Friends of Winter, Porcelain painted with cobalt blue under transparent glaze (Jingdezhen ware), China

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Dish with Three Friends of Winter, Porcelain painted with cobalt blue under transparent glaze (Jingdezhen ware), China
Dish with Three Friends of Winter, Porcelain painted with cobalt blue under transparent glaze (Jingdezhen ware), China

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