Foliated dish with four birds and flowers
Not on view
This dish is an excellent example of a small group of carved black lacquers that feature a four-bird motif. In this example, four birds fly amid a dense array of blossoming peonies. This design evolved from a “two-bird” motif that first appeared during the late thirteenth century. Demanding extraordinary carving skills, these vessels create a nearly three-dimensional visual across a basically flat surface. The even more complex design featuring four or five birds, as here, began to appear on lacquers of the fifteenth century.
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