Page 222 - 2021 March 16th Japanese and Korean Art, Christie's New York City

The Chinese characters that embellish this jar are clearly porcelains wares typically is a pale, almost silvery, blue, as
written and easily readable, but the flowers are more difficult evinced by designs on this jar. The decorative schemes on
to identify, as they are sketchily rendered and are all depicted Chinese wares generally are continuous, stretching all the
with the same grass-like leaves. Although many authors way ’round the vessel; by contrast, the decoration on Korean
simply identify the motif as “floral designs” or generically porcelains often is discontinuous, with discrete design
term all the flowers “orchids”, the careful differentiation of elements appearing around the vessel. The Korean wares’
the blossoms from plant to plant permits an attempt at lack of borders—or, if used, very simple borders—stands in
more specific identification. Thus, the flower between the marked contrast to the elaborate top and bottom borders
suand bok roundels might be identified as an orchid, the characteristic of Chinese wares. In addition, from the
flower between the bokand gang roundels as dianthus— fifteenth century onward, the painting on the best Korean
commonly known in English as pinks—that between the porcelains closely approximates that on paper and silk.
gang andnyeongroundels as narcissus, and that between the
Two closely related jars appear in the collection of the
nyeong and suroundels as chrysanthemum. All cultivated
National Museum of Korea, Seoul (don 351 and don
in East Asia, those flowering plants frequently appear in
465). Two additional jars, both closely related, are in the
Chinese and Korean paintings. Such jars, sparsely but
collection of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka
delicately painted with favored plants and embellished with
(acc. nos. 20454 and 20601), and the collections of the
auspicious characters, were very much in the taste of Korean
Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, and the Nezu Institute of
literati of the Joseon dynasty.
Fine Arts, Tokyo, each include one related jar. In addition,
Korean potters began to produce blue-and-white ware two related jars are in the Samsung Collection at the Ho’am
—i.e., porcelain with designs painted in underglaze cobalt Museum, Yong’in, Korea. Similar in shape, all of these
blue—as early as the fifteenth century, in imitation of jars sport the same four flowering plants, the blossoms
Chinese porcelains of the early Ming period (1368–1644). differentiated in exactly the same manner; some have a
Most extant Korean porcelains from the sixteenth and ground line from which the plants grow, others do not. Only
seventeenth centuries feature designs painted in underglaze the jar in the National Museum of Korea (don 465) also has
iron brown, but blue-and-white ware appeared in quantity roundels with Chinese characters reading su, bok, gang,
again in the late seventeenth century and would dominate andnyeong; the others lack those decorative elements. One
the later Korean ceramic tradition. jar in the Ho’am Museum has two roundels, one placed
immediately above the other, with Chinese characters
The cobalt-blue of the best Chinese porcelains ranges
reading ju jun, meaning “wine jar.”
from dark royal to navy blue, but that of the finest Korean