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Vase

Asian Art

On View: Asian Galleries, South, 2nd floor
Vases of this shape, known as maebyeong in Korean and meiping in Chinese, were used for display of single branches from flowering trees. These examples represent two early attempts to add another color to celadon-glazed ceramics. The clouds on one vase were painted directly onto the gray body in liquid white clay (slip) and then covered with the nearly clear green glaze. Although appropriate for the depiction of clouds, this kind of watery, freehand decoration would prove to be difficult to control and would be replaced soon after by inlaid decoration. The iron-brown painting on the other vase was also applied under the glaze, and in this case the iron affected the color of the glaze—another problem that would be alleviated by the invention of inlaid decoration.
MEDIUM Porcelaneous stoneware with celadon glaze
  • Place Made: Korea
  • DATES 12th century
    DYNASTY Goryeo Dynasty
    DIMENSIONS Height: 13 5/16 in. (33.8 cm) Diameter at mouth: 2 3/16 in. (5.6 cm) Diameter at base: 4 7/8 in. (12.4 cm)  (show scale)
    COLLECTIONS Asian Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 76.43
    CREDIT LINE Gift of Antoinette M. Kraushaar
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION From "Korean Art Collection in the Brooklyn Museum" catalogue: This vase shows features that are typical of maebyeong vases: a broad shoulder and a small mouth. The body is decorated with a cloud design painted with white slip. Considering that few celadon maebyeong were decorated using this slip painting technique, experts believe that it was made before the inlaying technique was developed. The foot is of the concave base type and has five refractory clay marks from kiln stacking. The shape of the vase, the cloud design on the surface, and the techniques used for decoration reveal that it was made in the twelfth century.
    EXHIBITIONS
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Asian Galleries, South, 2nd floor
    CAPTION Vase, 12th century. Porcelaneous stoneware with celadon glaze, Height: 13 5/16 in. (33.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Antoinette M. Kraushaar, 76.43. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 76.43_edited_SL1.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 76.43_edited_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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