.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The dragon is perhaps the most important motif in the Chinese ceramic decorative repertory being symbolic of Imperial power. During the Song period the dragon motif was employed as an archaistic chilong type with three large claws set in relative isolation giving the sinuous snake-like body maximum impact. This was perpetuated during the Yuan dynasty, although the dragon had developed into the more 'mature' type, with characteristic blunt nose, strained eyes beneath fringed lashes, pronounced antler-like horns and thick tresses sweeping from beneath their necks into high coiffures. During the early Ming period, the dragon typically remained unobscured by surrounding decoration, whether clouds, flames, or foliage, retaining its whole body as a dominant single visual entity.
Featuring an exuberant dragon as the central motif, this magnificent vase belongs to a celebrated group of Imperial wares that may be considered to be among the finest of all Xuande porcelains. A vase painted with a virtually identical dragon and other design elements (fig. 1) and dated to the Xuande period is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 34 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 90-1, no. 87, while another similar example inscribed with a Xuande mark in a horizontal line on the neck in the Tokyo National Museum was included in Chinese Arts of the Ming and Ch'ing Periods, Tokyo, 1963, no. 287. Another very similar vase dated to the early 15th century is preserved in the Ardebil Shrine Collection and illustrated by T. Misugi, Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1981, pp. 152-3, no. A.75, along with two other related vases of the same date, nos. A.76 and A.77, each decorated with a single three-clawed dragon which is reserved in white on a blue and white ground of crashing waves. Similar dragons can be found on two vases of this form dated to the Yongle period, but with the dragons set against a rather sparse lotus scroll, one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Blue-and-White Porcelain of the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1988, p. 25, the other in the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated in Special Exhibition - Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo National Museum, 1994, p. 143, no. 246.
Similarly rendered dragons can also be found encircling other large Xuande period blue and white vessels, such as the famous group bearing four-character Xuande marks on the shoulder. These include the blue and white guan in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated by S. G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, col. pl. 21, and the guan in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, illustrated in In Pursuit of the Dragon, Seattle Art Museum, 1988, p. 81, no. 21; the pair of meiping in the Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, one of which is illustrated in the Handbook, Kansas City, 1959, p. 211, top right; and the single meiping in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated by R. D. Jacobsen, Appreciating China, Gifts from Ruth and Bruce Dayton, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2002, p. 195, no. 121.
The rendering of the dragons on this group of wares, with their massive rounded bodies, would have been remarkably difficult to achieve. As can be seen on the current vase, the elongated, scaly body of the backward-looking dragon is executed with precise movements of the brush to give an impression of the dragon's rhythmic motion as it strides around the globular body.
Featuring an exuberant dragon as the central motif, this magnificent vase belongs to a celebrated group of Imperial wares that may be considered to be among the finest of all Xuande porcelains. A vase painted with a virtually identical dragon and other design elements (fig. 1) and dated to the Xuande period is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 34 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 90-1, no. 87, while another similar example inscribed with a Xuande mark in a horizontal line on the neck in the Tokyo National Museum was included in Chinese Arts of the Ming and Ch'ing Periods, Tokyo, 1963, no. 287. Another very similar vase dated to the early 15th century is preserved in the Ardebil Shrine Collection and illustrated by T. Misugi, Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1981, pp. 152-3, no. A.75, along with two other related vases of the same date, nos. A.76 and A.77, each decorated with a single three-clawed dragon which is reserved in white on a blue and white ground of crashing waves. Similar dragons can be found on two vases of this form dated to the Yongle period, but with the dragons set against a rather sparse lotus scroll, one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Blue-and-White Porcelain of the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1988, p. 25, the other in the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated in Special Exhibition - Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo National Museum, 1994, p. 143, no. 246.
Similarly rendered dragons can also be found encircling other large Xuande period blue and white vessels, such as the famous group bearing four-character Xuande marks on the shoulder. These include the blue and white guan in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated by S. G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, col. pl. 21, and the guan in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, illustrated in In Pursuit of the Dragon, Seattle Art Museum, 1988, p. 81, no. 21; the pair of meiping in the Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, one of which is illustrated in the Handbook, Kansas City, 1959, p. 211, top right; and the single meiping in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated by R. D. Jacobsen, Appreciating China, Gifts from Ruth and Bruce Dayton, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2002, p. 195, no. 121.
The rendering of the dragons on this group of wares, with their massive rounded bodies, would have been remarkably difficult to achieve. As can be seen on the current vase, the elongated, scaly body of the backward-looking dragon is executed with precise movements of the brush to give an impression of the dragon's rhythmic motion as it strides around the globular body.