Yuan dynasty · the first blue-and-white
Bottle with Peony Scroll
青花缠枝牡丹纹瓶 · 元
mid-14th centuryunderglaze cobalt 青花first-generation qinghua
This bottle belongs to the very first generation of blue-and-white porcelain ever made. In the mid-1300s, cobalt ore carried from Persia met the white clay of Jingdezhen, and painters wrapped this pear-shaped body in an unbroken scroll of peonies — the flower of wealth and honour.
Everything we now call qinghua descends from vessels like this one. The composition still teaches a painter’s core lesson: how to make a flat pattern breathe around a curved form.
Where it lives now 现藏
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (open access, CC0) — view in the collection →