Cleveland Museum of Art

Jar with Dragon and Clouds Design

Date

late 1600s

Medium

porcelain with underglaze iron

Culture

Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)

Department

Korean Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In traditional Korean art, dragons were used as an emblem of royalty. Over centuries, the ways of depicting this powerful mythical creature varied in response to artistic trends and socioeconomic changes. Here, the artist imagined with free-flowing calligraphic brushstrokes a whimsical dragon with bulging eyes who wraps his scaled body around the vessel. This piece was acquired from the London Gallery in Tokyo, Japan. Its owner, Tajima Mitsuru (born about 1936) is regarded as one of the pioneering Japanese art dealers to cultivate lasting relationships directly with collectors and museums in the United States. A mythical creature believed to have the power to make rain, the dragon is a prominent symbol of rulers in premodern East Asia; the image of dragons was used exclusively for the king's paraphernalia.

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