清康熙 景德鎮窯青花昌江聚詠詩畫瓶|Vase with poems in a panoramic landscape

Unknown

late 17th century · Porcelain painted with cobalt blue under transparent glaze (Jingdezhen ware) · Asian Art

This vase is a unique memento of a literary gathering at the ceramic production center Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, in the 1690s. Its surface is richly decorated with figure groups and local scenic sites, all rendered with precision and sensitivity. Most remarkable are the transcriptions of an essay and ten poems that grace the sky and the rock faces. Collectively they relate a true story of strangers becoming friends across traditional class boundaries. A visiting official named Shang Ancun, known for his poems on local scenery, met two local scholars who presented their own poems on the subject, and friendship was born. In their company was a master potter also adept at poetry and painting. He painted the vase, including the transcriptions of poems composed on the occasion (one by him), thereby transforming a private exchange into a lasting artwork.

Artist

Unknown

Date

late 17th century

Medium

Porcelain painted with cobalt blue under transparent glaze (Jingdezhen ware)

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Julia and John Curtis, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary, 2020