Late Ming · made for Japanese tea masters
Oxherding Dish with Poem
青花诗铭牧牛纹盘(古染付) · 明末
early 17th centuryunderglaze cobalt 青花ko-sometsuke 古染付
Oxherds lead their animals across the well, and a poem drifts through the sky — painted fast, loose and full of life. Dishes in this manner, called ko-sometsuke (“old blue-and-white”) in Japan, were made at Jingdezhen for Japanese tea-ceremony taste, which prized their casual, almost childlike brush.
It is proof that a sketchy hand can be the height of sophistication — the spirit we borrow for this website, and for many commissions.
Where it lives now 现藏
Documented in a public collection (image released CC0 via Wikimedia Commons) — view in the collection →