White porcelain painted with cobalt blue, a style that first flourished in China in the fourteenth century, is arguably the most important development in the history of ceramics. Commissioned by the court, this spectacular storage jar, made in the kilns in Jingdezhen, is dated to the rule of the Xuande emperor by an inscription on its shoulder. Its painted decoration features an animated dragon undulating across a sparsely clouded sky.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Jar with dragon
Period:Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Xuande mark and period (1426–35)
Date:early 15th century
Culture:China
Medium:Porcelain painted with cobalt blue under transparent glaze (Jingdezhen ware)
Dimensions:H. 19 in. (48.3 cm); Diam. 19 in. (48.3 cm)
Classification:Ceramics
Credit Line:Gift of Robert E. Tod, 1937
Object Number:37.191.1
Marking: On shoulder "Xuan de nian zhi (made in the Xuande period, [1426-1435])
Robert E. Tod , New York (until 1937; donated to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "China: Through the Looking Glass," May 7–August 16, 2015.
Priest, Alan. "A Song Fresco and Ten Chinese Porcelains." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 33, no. 4 (April 1938). pp. 97–100.
Lee, Jean Gordon. "Ming Blue-and-White." Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 49, no. 223 (Autumn 1949). pp. 1–72, fig. 47.
Mayuyama Jun'kichi. Chinese Ceramics in the West: a Compendium of Chinese Ceramic Masterpieces in European and American Collections. Tokyo, 1960, p. 95, cat. no. 95.
Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. Exh. cat. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1970, p. 242, cat. no. 253.
Glubok, Shirley, and Designed by Gerard Nook. The Art of China. Designed by Gerard Nook. New York: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1973, p. 27.
Valenstein, Suzanne G. A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975, pl. 82.
Suzanne G. Valenstein. "Highlights of Chinese Ceramics." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 33, no. 3, Autumn 1975. pl. 26.
Valenstein, Suzanne G., Julia Meech, and Marilyn Jenkins. Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. vol. 12, limited ed. ed., Tokyo: Kōdansha International Ltd., 1977, color pl. 32.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983, p. 266, fig. 57.
Barnhart, Richard M. (Introduction). The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Asia. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987, pp. 88–89, pl. 54.
Suzanne G. Valenstein. A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989, color pl. #21.
Burn, Barbara, ed. Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993, p. 181.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. 2nd ed., New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994, p. 118, fig. 57.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012, p. 98.
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