Large, Broad-Shouldered Jar with Decoration of Two Striding Dragons, Each Pursuing a Flaming Jewel
mid 18th century
Description
Large, broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted jars of this type were popular in Korea in the late seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century examples have a short, collarlike neck and an exaggerated profile, with bulging shoulders and a constricted waist; nineteenth-century examples, by contrast, show a more subdued profile but have a tall neck and a beveled foot. In the East Asian dualistic yin-yang interpretation of the universe, the dragon symbolizes the yang, or male, principle, while the phoenix represents the yin, or female, principle. Associated with water, the auspicious dragon is typically paired with clouds, mist, or rolling waves; the flaming jewel, borrowed from the repertory of Buddhist art, symbolizes transcendent wisdom. The motif here of a dragon chasing a flaming jewel thus symbolizes the pursuit of wisdom.
Dimensions
H. 44.3 x Diam. 35 cm (17 7/16 x 13 3/4 in.)
Provenance
Marie-Hélène, New York (by 2003), gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2003.
Related Artworks
View MoreLight gray stoneware with pale celadon glaze over decoration painted in iron-brown slip
17th-18th centuryKoreanBlue-and-white ware: porcelain with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue
18th centuryKoreanLight gray stoneware with pale celadon glaze over decoration painted in iron-brown slip
17th-18th centuryKoreanWhite ware: porcelain with ivory glaze stained brown. Probably made in Kwangju-gun, Kyŏnggi province.
17th-18th centuryKoreanWhite ware: porcelain with light bluish glaze. Probably made in Kwangju-gun, Kyŏnggi province.
18th centuryKoreanBlue-and-white ware: porcelain with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue. From the kilns at Punwŏn-ri, Kwangju-gun, Kyŏnggi province.
18th centuryKoreanPorcelain with underglaze cobalt-painted decoration
18th centuryKoreanBlue-and-white ware: porcelain with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue; with mark reading "chi" ("earth") painted in underglaze cobalt blue on the base. From kilns in Kwangju-gun, Kyŏnggi province, perhaps in Toma-ri.
17th-18th centuryKoreanCoarse buff stoneware with opaque mottled light blue glaze. Made in northeastern Korea, probably in Hoeryŏng-gun, possibly in Myŏngc'hŏn-gun, North Hamgyŏng province.
17th-19th centuryKoreanWhite ware: porcellaneous white stoneware with white glaze. Reportedly recovered in Chinju, South Kyŏngsang province.
17th-18th centuryKoreanMolded light gray stoneware with traces of natural ash glaze
17th-20th centuryKoreanLight gray stoneware with mottled greenish-brown glaze. Probably made near Ŭijŏngbu, Kyŏnggi province.
18th-19th centuryKorean