Minneapolis Institute of Art

Pillow

China

Date

10th-12th century

Medium

Cizhou ware Stoneware with white cut-glaze peony decoration on a brown slip under a transparent glaze

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This bean shaped ceramic pillow is decorated on top with an oval medallion of twin peony blossoms rising from a single stalk. The sides are ornamented with a continuous frieze of stylized lotus scroll all freely carved through the cream-white exterior slip. It stands in contrast with the olive-brown interior slip which covers the buff-colored stoneware body. Kilns producing Cizhou type ware existed in several North China districts where clay, water, and coal deposits were sufficient to support a large ceramic industry. Cizhou ware developed entirely as a popular ceramics industry distinct from court sponsored kilns. Pillows fall under this general definition of slip-coated ceramics and the overwhelming majority of ceramic pillows, whether made for daily use or burial, are of Cizhou manufacture. Asia

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