Cleveland Museum of Art

Prunus Vase (Meiping) with Blossoming Lotus

Date

late 1400s

Medium

Porcelain with polychrome glazes, Fahua ware

Culture

China, Jiangxi Province, Jingdezhen kilns, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Department

Chinese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

According to 11th-century poet Zhou Dunyi, “all people like peonies, but I alone like the lotus because it emerges from the mud unstained.” The lotus is a symbol of purity and popular among Chinese literati and in Buddhism. This vase shows lotus flowers rising from the water’s surface depicted in elegant yet simple ripples. Made in a kiln at Jingdezhen in southern China, this vase is an example of the fahua technique—decoration with raised outlines produced by squeezing clay from a tube onto the vase’s surface. Colors are applied to fill the outlines before firing. The shoulders of the vase are decorated with ruyi -shaped clouds.

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