White porcelain, decorated, in overglaze enamel colors, with flowers, calligraphy, and seals.
Marks:
Four-character mark of the Yung Cheng period (1723-1735) in overglaze blue enamel, under the base.
Label:
During the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), emperors sometimes ordered court artists to decorate porcelains, a practice that intensified the aesthetic link between paintings and ceramics. The depiction of branches of cut flowers isolated from a garden environment is a conventional image for summer borrowed from handscroll paintings of the seasons. Chinese painters often inscribed their works with poetry. This dish also bears a poem, which begins: "On a beautiful day, the fragrant clusters display auspicious colors."
Provenance:
To 1928
Yamanaka & Co., New York. [1]
From 1928
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Yamanaka & Co., New York. [2]
Notes:
[1] Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record.
[2] See note 1.
Collection:
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Exhibition History:
Looking Out, Looking In: Art in Late Imperial China (October 14, 2017 - ongoing)
Beyond Paper: Chinese Calligraphy on Objects (August 18, 1994 to July 3, 1997)
Chinese Ceramics (March 15, 1982 to July 10, 1986)
Chinese Art (March 9, 1981 to March 12, 1982)
Chinese Ceramics (May 9, 1980 to March 6, 1981)
Chinese Art (January 1, 1963 to March 6, 1981)
Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Ceramics (March 7, 1957 to January 1, 1963)
Centennial Exhibition, Gallery 13 (November 10, 1955 to March 1, 1957)
Special Exhibition, Chinese Art, 1946 (August 7, 1946 to January 7, 1947)
Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Ceramics and Paintings (November 14, 1944 to May 3, 1946)
Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Painting and Ceramics, 1943 (March 22, 1943 to November 13, 1944)
Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Painting and Ceramics (March 14, 1931 to March 22, 1943)
Untitled Exhibition, Shahnama and Chinese Art (March 24, 1930 to May 5, 1933)
