Small vase

Art Historical Context

This delicate small vase, standing just 13 cm tall, hails from China's Qing dynasty during the Kangxi reign (2–1722), a golden era for porcelain production at the imperial kilns of Jingdezhen. Craft from fine porcelain and adorned with underglaze blue painting—a technique where cobalt pigment is applied to the unfired clay before a transparent glaze is added and fired—this piece exemplifies the technical mastery of the period. The vivid blue motifs, likely featuring elegant horses as suggested by its tags, would have emerged sharp and luminous from the high-temperature kiln. Blue-and-white po...

About the Artist

Chinese

The artist known simply as "Chinese" in museum records represents the vast tradition of anonymous or unattributed masters in Chinese art history, with 99 works preserved in our collection. These pieces exemplify the enduring legacy of guó huà, or traditional Chinese painting, one of the world's oldest continuous artistic practices. Early life is not well documented, as is common for many practitio...