Jingdezhen ware
(China)
- Title
- 'Wucai' dish decorated with dragon and two phoenixes above the Immortal Isles in the Eastern sea
- Other titles:
- Dish with design of dragon and two phoenix above the Eastern seas
Dish with design of dragon and phoenixes - Place of origin
-
Jingdezhen →
Jiangxi Province →
China
- Period
- Wanli 1573 - 1619 → Ming dynasty 1368 - 1644 → China
- Media category
- Ceramic
- Materials used
- porcelain with 'wucai' (five colour) polychrome enamel decoration
- Dimensions
-
4.0 x 27.0cm
- Credit
- Purchased 1988
- Accession number
- 302.1988
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
In the interior centre of this colourful dish is an ascending five-clawed dragon with its mane flying apart in the middle. Alongside the dragon are two descending phoenixes. Below them are three geometric designs arising from the wavy ocean, symbols of the sacred mountains of Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou in the Bohai sea. At the top is a circle containing three bars, the first character in 'Book of Change' - Qian. Qian refers to the sky, the sun and male yang force. On the sides of the dish are animals under branches of flowering pomegranate trees whose seeds symbolise male heirs. On the exterior are ruyi (literally meaning 'as you wish') floral patterns.
Asian Art Department, AGNSW, January 2012
- Bibliography (3)
-
'Chinese Porcelain', pg. 30-41., Asian Collection Handbook, Art Gallery of New South Wales 1990, 1990, 34 (colour illus.).
J. Hepburn Myrtle (Australia, b.1911, d.1998) (Author), Chinese porcelain of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, Sydney, 1977, 23, 51 (illus.). cat. no. 29, plate nos. 12, 21
'The Marvel of Porcelain', The Asian Collections Art Gallery of New South Wales 2003, 2003, 120 (colour illus.).
- Exhibition history (2)
-
Chinese porcelain of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 18 Feb 1977–26 Jun 1977.
Dragon (2012), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 18 Jan 2012–06 May 2012.
