Dish with flowering trees

Object Details

• Description

  Polychrome--Ku Yueh Hsuan type

  Bowl. Shallow with slightly everted lip, low foot rim. Ivory stand.

  Body: fine-grained white porcelain.

  Glaze: perfectly transparent white, fine orange skin texture.

  Decoration: overglaze enamels; floral pattern, calligraphy and 3 seals on pistachio green ground outside.

  Mark: four-characters, of the Yung Cheng (Yongzheng) period in overglaze blue enamel on base.

• Marks

  Mark: four-characters, of the Yung Cheng (Yongzheng) period in overglaze blue enamel on base.

• Label

  Blossoming at the Chinese new year, camellia and flowering plum trees are popular symbols of spring renewal. The verse on this dish likens the trees and their delicate blossoms to beautiful women: "Lightly made up and casting scattered shadows, they lean toward each other." Inclusion of the poem on this porcelain dish encourages comparison of the decor with a painting bearing the Three Perfections (poetry, calligraphy, and painting). The background of opaque color, however, exploits an aesthetic new to porcelain decoration of the early eighteenth century. The use of strong color demonstrates too that ceramic decor remained an independent art form even though it was influenced by works on paper.

• Provenance

  1928

  Yamanaka and Company, New York 1928 [1]

  From 1928

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Yamanaka and Company, New York in 1928 [2]

  Notes:

  [1] See Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List file, Collections Management Office.

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Looking Out, Looking In: Art in Late Imperial China (October 14, 2017 - ongoing)

  Beyond Paper: Chinese Calligraphy on Objects (August 18, 1994 to July 3, 1997)

  Chinese Flower Paintings (March 18 to September 22, 1983)

  Chinese Ceramics (March 15, 1982 to July 10, 1986)

  Chinese Ceramics (April 11, 1978 to September 4, 1980)

  Chinese Art (January 1, 1963 to March 6, 1981)

  Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Ceramics (March 7, 1957 to January 1, 1963)

  Centennial Exhibition, Gallery 13 (November 10, 1955 to March 1, 1957)

  Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Painting and Ceramics (March 14, 1931 to March 22, 1943)

  Untitled Exhibition, Shahnama and Chinese Art (March 24, 1930 to May 5, 1933)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Yamanaka and Co. 山中商会 (1917-1965)

• Origin

  Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Vessel

• On View

  Freer Gallery 13: Looking Out, Looking In: Art in Late Imperial China

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1720s, 1730s

• Name

  Yamanaka and Co.

• Place

  China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen

• Topic

  Porcelain, Art, Chinese Art, Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911), Ceramics, Flowers, Guyuexuan ware

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)

• On View

  Yes