Ewer with Peacocks
12th century
Description
This purple-glazed ewer has a bulbous body and a tapering neck with a wide, flaring mouth. Its relief decoration features a broad band of confronting peacocks, their necks intertwined, alternating with pear-shaped floral motifs. Above this main band is a narrower one with scrolling vines. The foot of the ewer has been left unglazed. On one section of the peacock band the glaze has pooled, perhaps due to an error in the firing process. The vessel has been repaired, especially in the area of the mouth.
Dimensions
H: 24.3 x Diam: 15.5 cm (9 9/16 x 6 1/8 in.)
Provenance
Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (by 1978-2002), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2002.
Related Artworks
View MoreWhite ware: molded porcelain with pale grayish-green glaze. Reportedly recovered less than 50 miles south of Seoul in summer 1961.
15th centuryKoreanTransferware porcelain
19th centuryBritishHard-paste porcelain with polychrome enamel decoration and silver
18th centuryGermanPink fritware covered in plaster and painted with black (chromium) under turquoise (copper) translucent lead alkali glaze
20th centurySilver
1st century BCERomanEnameled blue-and-white ware, "doucai" type: porcelain with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze polychrome enamels; with spurious underglaze cobalt blue mark reading "Da Ming Chenghua nian zhi" within a circle on the base
18th centuryChineseGlass
19th centuryGermanBronze
5th century BCEGreekSilver
18th centuryAmericanBlue faience
4th-1st century BCEHellenisticHard-paste porcelain decorated with polychrome enamels and gold
18th centuryGerman