Day 71 - Jin dynasty bowl


July 17, 2018

I'm frustrated that the numerical order of the Chinese ceramic galleries doesn't correspond with their chronological order: Gallery 205, the highest-numbered of these galleries, also contains the oldest objects. A placard describes the broad factors that influenced the development of ceramics in China. Two of these -- technological advances (the discovery of porcelain, for example) and foreign trade -- are by now familiar to me. But an additional element, I learn, was the growing prominence of tea-drinking, which was seen as a stimulus to Buddhist meditation.  Who knew? Some glazes were particularly prized because they were seen as enhancing the color of the tea.

A number of objects  catch my eye. They include: a vessel whose unusual horizontal oval shape resembles a cocoon (or so the caption describes it); a multi-colored ewer whose shape derives from Iranian metalwork (evidence of trade along the Silk Road); and a stoneware "pillow" (more like a headrest, I'd say, and hardly likely to be comfortable!) painted on the top to show a young boy riding a hobbyhorse. Some of the simple forms and interesting glazes make tea bowls from the 11th through 14th centuries look very modern.

 Today's object is a bowl, perhaps 5 inches high, 8 inches in diameter at the top, and only a couple of inches wide across the bottom, that dates from the Jin dynasty, during the 12th and 13th centuries. Except for its copper rim, it has a simple monochromatic ivory glaze. It's a quiet piece, plain on the outside but decorated on the inside with peonies that are nestled amid curving foliage. The design was made by pressing a mold repeatedly against the damp clay of the inner wall before the bowl was fired.  You have to look carefully, but once you do, the bowl's beauty and simplicity make it pretty wonderful.  I wish I could touch it and feel the slight rises and falls of its contours against my fingertips.  

 The bowl was made at a time when northeast China was under the control of the Jurchen Jin dynasty. The Jin were nomads originally. Is this bowl evidence that they developed an appreciation for beautiful things? 
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