Dish with birds and flowers
Unknown Artist
17th century
Medium
Porcelain painted in underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze polychrome enamels (Jingdezhen ware)
Dimensions
1 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. (3.8 x 21.6 cm)
Classification
Ceramics
Culture & Period
China · Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Fletcher Fund, 1924
Accession Number
24.170.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate porcelain dish, titled *Dish with Birds and Flowers hails from China's renowned Jingdezhen kilns during the late Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the 17th century. Measuring just 1 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, this shallow vessel showcases the era's masterful ceramics production, where artisans transformed kaolin clay into translucent, durable porcelain prized worldwide. The artwork's decoration blends underglaze cobalt blue—fired into the glaze for enduring vibrancy—with overglaze polychrome enamels, applied and fired at lower temperatures to add vivid hues of red, green, and yellow. This dual...