Page 316 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

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A KOREAN CELADON FLUTED VASE
GORYEO DYNASTY, 12TH CENTURY
Of yuhuchunping-form, the vase is molded with multiple vertical ribs which
are marked at intervals with pairs of horizontal incisions in imitation of
bamboo. The exterior is covered with a crackled, pale greyish-green glaze
that pools to a bluish tone in the recesses, and the unglazed base is burnt
to a brownish-orange color.
14Ω in. (36.8 cm.) high
$25,000-30,000

高麗十二世紀 青瓷竹節紋玉壺春瓶

Perhaps used as a fower vase, this sophisticated vessel more likely served as Though often compared to Longquan celadon wares 龍泉窯, vessels of this
a bottle for dispensing wine at an elegant gathering during Korea’s Goryeo type were made in the twelfth century and thus are earlier than the visually
dynasty 高麗時代 (AD 918–1392), an era of supreme artistic refnement. similar Longquan bottles, which typically date to the thirteenth century. In fact,
With its decoration suggesting a cluster of bamboo stalks, it perfectly such Korean bottles likely were inspired by Chinese imperial Ru ware 汝窯, like
demonstrates the transformation of a Chinese vessel type to meet Korean the rare bottle in the British Museum (1978,0522.1; see: Jessica Rawson, The
aesthetic preferences. British Museum Book of Chinese Art, London: British Museum Publications,
1992, fg. 166). Lacking decoration, the earliest such Korean celadon bottles—
The celadon wares 青瓷, Korea’s best-known ceramics, exemplify the the one in the Henderson Collection in the Harvard Art Museums (1991.542),
refned sensibilities of Goryeo culture. Though numerous kilns produced for example, or that in the Gompertz Collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum at
celadon wares, the very best pieces—which were used by the royal court, Cambridge University (C.419-1984)—are very much in the Chinese mode; with
the aristocracy, and wealthy Buddhist temples—came from kilns in Gangjin their taste for sculptural forms, however, Korean potters soon transformed
(in South Jeolla province) 全羅南道康津郡 and in Bu’an (in North Jeolla such bottles by embellishing their surfaces with wide, vertical ribs which
province) 全羅北道扶安郡, areas in the southwestern part of the peninsula they fnished to resemble stalks of bamboo, imparting a uniquely Korean
that are rich in fne stoneware clays. Vessels with molded, incised, or carved interpretation. In addition to long-necked bottles, ewers also occasionally
decoration, such as this exquisite bottle, typify twelfth-century wares, while were decorated in similar manner; see, for example, the ewer in New York’s
ones with designs inlaid in black and white slips 化妝土 epitomize those of Metropolitan Museum of Art (1996.471), the ewer-and-basin set in the National
the thirteenth and fourteen centuries (the inlay technique known in Korean Museum of Korea, Seoul (Deoksu-378), and the calabash-shaped ewer in the
as sanggam gisul 鑲嵌技術). As evinced by this elegant bottle, Goryeo- Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (B64P58).
period clients favored vessels in sculptural form, the forms characteristically
suggesting bamboo shoots or clusters, lotus blossoms, ripe melons, Several museum collections include bottles of similar size, shape, style, and
calabash gourds, and open blossoms, among others. Korean celadon glazes appearance. The very best such bottles, however, are those in the Lee’um
tend to be more transparent and also more bluish green than those of Samsung Museum, Seoul, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (11.1819;
contemporaneous Chinese celadons. The fnest Korean celadons rival their see: Jane Portal, Arts of Korea, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts Publications,
Chinese counterparts in terms of both artistic sophistication and technical 2012). In addition, Godfrey Gompertz illustrated a closely related example in
achievement. In fact, a thirteenth-century Chinese connoisseur, one Taiping his classic Korean Celadon, the frst scholarly book on the subject in English,
Laoren 太平老人, ranked Korean celadons “frst under heaven” 天下第一, the bottle at that time in the collection of Hyŏng-min Kim (see: Godfrey
including them on a list with such other “frsts” as the wines of the palace, St. G. M. Gompertz, Korean Celadon, and Other Wares of the Koryŏ Period,
the inkstones 硯台 of Duanxi 端溪 (端硯), the peonies of Luoyang 洛陽, and the London: Faber and Faber, 1963, pl. 27).
tea of Fujian 福建.
Robert D. Mowry 毛瑞
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus,
Harvard Art Museums, and
Senior Consultant, Christie’s

哈佛大學藝術博物館亞洲部榮譽主任暨佳士得高級顧問

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