Jar with a Dragon in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2023

Title: Jar with dragon

Period: Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Xuande mark and period (1426–35)

Date: early 15th century

Culture: China

Medium: Porcelain painted with cobalt blue under transparent glaze (Jingdezhen ware)

Dimensions: H. 19 in. (48.3 cm); Diam. 19 in. (48.3 cm)

Classification: Ceramics

Credit Line: Gift of Robert E. Tod, 1937

Object Number: 37.191.1

White porcelain painted with cobalt blue, a style that first flourished in China in the fourteenth century, is arguably the most important development in the history of ceramics. Commissioned by the court, this spectacular storage jar, made in the kilns in Jingdezhen, is dated to the rule of the Xuande emperor by an inscription on its shoulder. Its painted decoration features an animated dragon undulating across a sparsely clouded sky.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39666