Page 230 - Christies Japanese and Korean Art Sept 22 2020 NYC

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AN IRON-DECORATED PORCELAIN JAR
JOSEON DYNASTY (17TH CENTURY)
Of compressed globular-form body with angled walls rising from
the high ring foot to the rolled neck, painted in underglaze iron-
brown, decorated with a single undulating dragon encircling the
body of the jar amidst large scalloped clouds, the jar covered by a
grayish white glaze
11Ω in. (29.2 cm.) high
$120,000-150,000

EXHIBITED:
“The Art of the Korean Potter,” shown at the following venues:
Asian House Gallery, New York, 1968.4.18-6.2. Royal Ontario
Museum, Toronto, 7.16-8.30. The Art Institute of Chicago, 10.5-
11.17.
LITERATURE:
Virginia Field, ed., The Art of the Korean Potter (New York: The Asia
Society, Inc., 1968), exh. cat. No. 98.
For other iron-brown decorated dragon jars, see Ho-Am mi sool
kwan myung poom do rok / Masterpieces of the Ho-Am Art Museum
(Seoul: Samsung Art and Culture Foundation, 1982), pl. 130;
Glory of Korean Pottery and Porcelain of the Yi Dynasty (Osaka:
Museum of Oriental Ceramics, 1987), pl. 112.

Arguably the finest of its type—the best of show, as it were—this painted on the bulging belly, as evinced by the appealing small
striking jar features a spirited dragon around its bulging belly and jar in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums (1991.600).
shoulders; with its head, tail, legs, and claws concealed by clouds, Even so, the most desirable are those emblazoned with dragons,
only the dragon’s lithe body breaks through the clouds to assert its such as the present jar, which feature schematized designs, often
powerful presence. Less exalted than contemporaneous blue-and- whimsically but energetically painted with forceful brushwork. Like
white yongjun 龍樽 dragon jars, wide-bodied jars with brown- this example, some jars feature relatively sparse designs, while others
and-white decoration served the needs of a Joseon-dynasty clientele boast expansive decoration that covers virtually the entire vessel
less elevated than the royal court, though the very finest of them, surface. The short necks of such jars typically flare outward, echoing
such as this compelling jar, might well have found their way into a the expanding angle of the jar’s lower half and thus infusing the
palace, even if only into kitchen or pantry. overall shape with dynamism.

Popular during the second half of the Joseon dynasty 朝鮮朝 In the East Asian dualistic yin-yang 陰陽 interpretation of the
(1392–1910), wide-bodied ho 壺 jars evolved from the small universe, the dragon 龍 symbolizes the yang 陽, or male, principle,
jars of identical shape that were made in buncheong stoneware while the phoenix 鳳凰 represents the yin 陰, or female, principle.
粉靑沙器 in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, such as the Associated with water, the auspicious dragon is typically paired with
charming example in the collection of the Asian Art Museum clouds, mist, or rolling waves.
of San Francisco (1998.25). By the seventeenth century and well
into the eighteenth, large ho jars were made in both porcelain Related jars with dragon décor painted in underglaze iron oxide
and gray stoneware; although porcelain examples were sometimes are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
left undecorated—such plain jars often termed “moon jars”, or York (2006.254), the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (2003.9),
dal hangari 달항아리 in Korean, due to their resemblance to a and the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA (1991.598). The
full moon —both porcelain and stoneware jars frequently were collection of the National Museum of Korea, Seoul, includes several
embellished with decoration painted in underglaze iron brown kindred jars (nos. Deoksu 1836, Dongwon 285, Dongwon 458, and
(and occasionally, if rarely, in underglaze copper red, but seemingly Dongwon 468); of the several National Museum jars, the closed to
never in underglaze cobalt blue). Many boast simple floral designs the present example in style and general appearance is Deoksu 1836.