Dragon Jar, mid 17th century. Porcelain with iron-painted decoration under clear glaze, overall: 12 11/16 x 14 9/16 in. (32.2 x 37 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Asian Art Council, 86.139. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 86.139_color_corrected_SL1.jpg)
Dragon Jar, mid 17th century. Porcelain with iron-painted decoration under clear glaze, overall: 12 11/16 x 14 9/16 in. (32.2 x 37 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Asian Art Council, 86.139. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 86.139_mark_PS1.jpg)
Dragon Jar
Asian Art
By the seventeenth century, porcelain had overtaken stoneware as the ceramic of choice for wealthy Koreans and underglaze brown—once favored for decoration of Buncheong stonewares—enjoyed a brief revival, this time on porcelain vessels. These large, bulbous storage jars were formed by joining two bowls, one inverted on top of the other. The swelling surfaces of the jars give dimension and energy to curvilinear forms, as seen in particular in the swirl of the highly abstracted dragon.
MEDIUM
Porcelain with iron-painted decoration under clear glaze
DATES
mid 17th century
DYNASTY
Joseon Dynasty
DIMENSIONS
overall: 12 11/16 x 14 9/16 in. (32.2 x 37 cm)
Height: 12 11/16 in. (32.2 cm)
Diameter: 14 9/16 in. (37 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Asian Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
86.139
CREDIT LINE
Gift of the Asian Art Council
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
From "Korean Art Collection in the Brooklyn Museum" catalogue:
The dragons that adorn seventeenth-century Joseon porcelain jars were conceived more as comical figures than the more traditional, sublime dragons that symbolized royalty. The political and economic instability of the period, caused by the Ming-Qing transition in China, affected the import of cobalt blue pigment from the continent, eventually leading Joseon potters to use iron oxide. The dragon decorating the surface of this jar has protruding round eyes and a wide-open mouth that suggest innocence and naiveté rather than furiousness. The limbless dragon, flying among the clouds, is depicted in an extremely simple manner with just a few strokes of the brush. There are a lot of impurities in the clay of the body, which is coated with a light gray glaze. It is a fine work of art that exhibits the distinctive characteristics of seventeenth century porcelain jars decorated with dragon designs in underglaze iron.
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Dragon Jar, mid 17th century. Porcelain with iron-painted decoration under clear glaze, overall: 12 11/16 x 14 9/16 in. (32.2 x 37 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Asian Art Council, 86.139. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 86.139_color_corrected_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 86.139_color_corrected_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
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