Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Chinese potters integrated foreign motifs, shapes, and ideas in order to cater to changing tastes and new customers in an increasingly global world.

Description

Arabesques, an ornamental design of intertwined flowing lines inspired by Middle Eastern culture, appear on Chinese blue-and-white porcelain since the 1300s. The early Ming emperors, particularly the Zhengde emperor, promoted Islam and commissioned porcelain with Islamic calligraphy.

Inscriptions

Inscription

正德年製

Inscription Translation

Zhengde nian zhi (Made in the Zhengde reign)

Inscription Remark

Four-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle on the base

Provenance

by 1949–1957

C.T. Loo 盧芹齋 [1880–1957], Paris, France, and New York, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art by exchange

1957–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Lee, Jean Gordon. “An Exhibition of Blue-Decorated Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty.” The Philadelphia Museum Bulletin, vol. 45, no. 223, 1949, pp. 1–72. Mentioned: no. 106, p. 17; Reproduced: no. 106, p. 56 www-jstor-org.ingallslibrary.idm.oclc.org

Carswell, John, and Jean McClure Mudge. Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain and Its Impact on the Western World. Chicago: The Gallery, 1985. cat. no. 35, p. 92

Exhibition history

Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain and Its Impact on the Western World. The David and Alfred Smart Gallery, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (October 3-December 1, 1985).

The Cleveland Museum of Art