Terms and conditions of use
Jar
Ming dynasty, Wanli period 1573-1620
- Medium
- porcelain (Kraak ware)
- Measurements
- 35.8 × 33.3 cm diameter
- Place/s of Execution
- Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, south-east China, China
- Accession Number
- 4349-D3
- Department
- Asian Art
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bequest of Howard Spensley, 1939
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Gordon Darling Foundation - Gallery location
- 17th Century & Flemish Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International - About this work
-
Chinese porcelains were first imported into Europe during the fourteenth century and were considered items of great luxury and rarity. From the early sixteenth century onwards, following Portugal’s establishment of commercial sea trade routes to Asia, Chinese potters began producing porcelains specifically for the European market. Porcelain began to arrive in increasing quantity throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, together with cargoes of tea, silks, paintings, lacquerware, metalwork and ivory. The blue-and-white vessels that comprised a large part of exported porcelain became known as kraak wares, the term deriving from the Dutch word for caracca, a sixteenth-century Portuguese merchant ship.
- Physical description
- Ovoid with short neck; body with large panels of flowering trees, shoulder with small panels of bird in tree, both with 'good luck' rui symbols and flower motifs with bands on swastika grid, foot band of lotus panels, neck band of flowers and auspicious objects. Damage to glaze.