Collections: Asian Art: Vase

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Vase

Early Qing porcelain decoration developed toward designs that equaled other luxury products for the imperial court. The painting of mythological birds in a landscape that decorates this Large Vase is rendered in both transparent and opaque enamels. Transparent enamels, mostly dark blues and greens, are used to color the rocks and the birds' feathers. Opaque enamel colors are employed to model the flowers in imitation of painting on paper or silk. The bright rose red of one large flower is produced by metallic gold in a clear enamel painted over an opaque white. This particular combination of colors and techniques helps to date the Vase to the decade of the 1720s, when decoration using opaque enamels was first mastered by the artisans of Jingdezhen.

• Medium: Porcelain, overglaze enamel
• Place Made: Jiangxi, China
• Dates: 1662-1772
• Dynasty: Qing Dynasty
• Period: Kangxi Period
• Dimensions: 18 1/4 x 7 5/8 in. (46.4 x 19.4 cm)
• Collections: Asian Art
• Museum Location: This item is on view in Asian Galleries, The Arts of China, 2nd Floor
• Accession Number: 32.1126
• Credit Line: Gift of the Executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam
• Image: Overall, 32.1126_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
Vase, 1662-1772. Porcelain, overglaze enamel, 18 1/4 x 7 5/8 in. (46.4 x 19.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam, 32.1126 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.1126_SL1.jpg)
• Catalogue Description: Shallow plate-like mouth; slightly long neck; cut (or bent) shoulders; tubular and long belly; circular foot. Form is like a wooden cudgel. Also known as "wooden cudgel vase" (baluster or Rouleau). Wucai and famille rose decorations of phoenix, peony, magnolia, peach flower, etc... Homophone of phoenix and peony is "yu tang fu gui" (fine house of wealth). Homophones for paintings on neck are "zhi ri gao sheng" (official promotion is nearby) and "jie jie ping an" (peace season after season). Besides lower section of circular foot is unglazed, clear glaze covers the interior, exterior, and interior of foot's base. Display porcelain. Condition: Intact. 2 raised lines on belly which were later painted over.