Dish

Unknown

1660–70 · Hard-paste porcelain · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Chinese ceramics were traded on a vast scale across South and Southeast Asia as well as Korea and Japan. With the disruption of this trade and of the kiln production at Jingdezhen at the end of the Ming dynasty (ca. 1644), kilns in Japan took up the manufacture of popular blue-and-white designs to supply both domestic and export demands. The shape of this plate, its palette, and the division of patterns into a circular field and broad rim are of Chinese origin, yet the interpretation of motifs (clouds, pines, and pavilions) shows a Japanese approach to design, especially in the asymmetrical balance of forms.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1660–70

Medium

Hard-paste porcelain

Culture

Japanese, for European market

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

The Hans Syz Collection, Gift of Stephan B. Syz and John D. Syz, 1995