Large Jar with Peonies and Chrysanthemums
Unknown Artist
late 1600s
Medium
Imari ware porcelain with underglaze blue decoration
Dimensions
diam. 30.5 cm · height: h. 40.1 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Severance and Greta Millikin Collection
Accession Number
1964.266
About this artwork
Japan took China’s place as Europe’s main source for export porcelain around the middle of the 17th century because the transition from the Ming to the Qing dynasty in China disrupted trade. The Dutch East India Company began to buy Japanese porcelain in 1650 and exported approximately 50,000 Japanese porcelains in 1659. Such large jars demonstrate how artists took the birds and flowers motifs found in paintings and applied them to the blue and white porcelain called sometsuke. The Japanese tran...