Minneapolis Institute of Art

Double gourd bottle

China

Date

Jiajing mark and period, 1522–1566

Medium

Porcelain with underglaze blue designs and an overglaze yellow ground

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This slightly off-kilter bottle features lotus scrolls painted in underglaze blue against an overglaze yellow enamel ground. The form and decoration of this bottle may reflect the pursuits of immortality by Daoists in China, who believed that the calabash gourd held the elixir to prolong life. Tieguai Li, one of the Eight Immortals of Daoism, is often depicted carrying a gourd. Asia

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