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Water vessel in the shape of a monster
Western Jin dynasty (265–316)
Porcelain
H. 11 in. (27. 9 cm)
Excavated at Yixing, Jiangsu Province, 1976
Nanjing Museum
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High-fired pottery vessels like this one, with a uniform glaze perfectly bounded to the vitrified body, represent an important stage in the development of porcelain in China, while the elegant grey-green glaze is one of the prototypes for the famed celadons of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. (The term "celadon"—derived from the name of a character in an eighteenth-century French play—is used to define lustrous glazes in shades of green and blue.) Both technical advances took place in the third century in the region of Yue (present-day Zhejiang) and Wu (Jiangsu) in southern China. Yue wares, as they are often known, are also noted for their playful forms. Endearing shapes such as that of the monster in this vessel could not have been produced under the rule of the Han dynasty when conventions were more strictly applied to all social activities, including the making of vessels and funerary goods.
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