Page 82 - Korean Buncheong Ceramics, Samsung Museum Collection (great book)

left: Figure 2.8 Detail of jar with dragon decoration. Korean, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910).
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Porcelain with underglaze iron painting, H. 16 ⁄4 in. (41.3 cm). Minneapolis Institute of Arts (81.113.6)
right: Figure 2.9 Detail of bottle with dragon decoration. Korean, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910); 15th century.
Porcelain with cobalt-blue painting, H. 9 ⁄8 in. (25 cm). Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul
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Humor is a key element in the dragons and dragon-fish that populate buncheong ware.
The dragon on a fifteenth-century maebyeong (fig. 2.7), however, can be seen as a precursor to the
amusing, even slightly comical-looking beasts, often rendered in frenetic lines, that appear on
Joseon porcelains beginning in the seventeenth century (see fig. 2.8). It may be instructive to
compare the dragon on the buncheong maebyeong with that on a fifteenth-century blue-and-white
bottle (fig. 2.9), an example of porcelain made at the official court kilns of Bunwon for use within
the palace compounds. Despite the obvious differences in material and style, the designs on both
vessels seem to follow a certain prototypical iconography of the beast. The buncheong example,
the antithesis of the classic dragon, auspicious and powerful, nevertheless exhibits vigorous energy
and captivating wit, in ways that are perhaps amplified by the economical and unencumbered style.

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