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Plate 8.13 Detail of blue-and-white flower pot Plate 8.14 Blue-and-white porcelain flower pot excavated from Jingdezhen, Xuande period,
from Amusements in the Four Seasons (Siji 1426–35. Height 12.4cm, diameter 24.4cm. Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramic Archaeology,
shangwan tu 四季賞玩圖), c. 1426–84, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province
Beijing. Handscroll, ink and colours on silk,
height 35cm, width 780cm. Private collection

Of course, all this blue-and-white porcelain was Palace ceramics were colourful in the 1400s and many of
produced under court orders. The designs on beautiful the types represented in the paintings do not survive at all,
Yongle period vessels are entirely derived from small-format although we know that the glazes could be achieved. A detail
court paintings, perhaps for album leaves or fans. They are, of the National Museum of China’s painting of the palace
it must be stressed, a new invention of the Yongle era. The enjoying the lantern festival (Pl. 8.15) has a vivid scene of
clay body is made in a new way, as is the glaze, and the two boy eunuchs warming their hands over a coal-burning
vessels are fired to new, higher temperatures, creating brazier. On either side of them are long tables with
glossier glazes. The range of novel shapes in the early 1400s symmetrical arrangements of porcelain vases glazed in
is extraordinary, many of them derived from the forms of single colours – red, yellow, blue and green. They are
Central Asian or Middle Eastern metalwork, glass and jade. catching the reflection of the flames in their glazes. Coloured
Whether this new cosmopolitan style was a result of the vases are known from later periods but have not survived
international sea voyages or land tribute missions, or
whether it was a response to objects left behind by the Plate 8.16 Detail of pedlars from Lantern Festival Celebrated in
Mongol court which were then copied, is still uncertain. Emperor Xianzong (Chenghua)’s Palace (Xianzong yuanxiao xingle tu
Many of these forms must have been purely decorative, even 憲宗元宵行樂圖), dated 1485, Beijing. Handscroll, ink and colours on
if the original on which they were based was not. silk, height 37cm, length 624cm. National Museum of China

Plate 8.15 Detail of the brazier and monochromes from Lantern
Festival Celebrated in Emperor Xianzong (Chenghua)’s Palace
(Xianzong yuanxiao xingle tu 憲宗元宵行樂圖), dated 1485, Beijing.
Handscroll, ink and colours on silk, height 37cm, length 624cm.
National Museum of China

Early Ming Ceramics: Rethinking the Status of Blue-and-White | 83