JAR, blue-and-white porcelain with design of fish and water plants in a lotus pond 青花 蓮池魚藻文 壺せいか れんちぎょそうもん つぼ

Description

The form of this large jar began to appear in the Yuan dynasty, and they have been decorated using various media, including qingbai glaze, celadon glaze, or underglaze copper-red paint. Known in Japan as shukaiko, meaning jar for wine gatherings, such jars originally had a lid and contained liquor or other liquid. The center of the body bears a decoration of several types of fish swimming spontaneously in the lotus pond. A combined design of fish and water plants is a common motif found in Yuan ceramics, also popularly adopted in folk paintings of the Jiangnan region (the southern area of the Yangzi River). The Chinese word for fish is yu, which is homonymous with the word for abundance, making the fish an auspicious motif symbolizing abundance of wealth. It is also a symbol of prosperity of posterity as fish lay many eggs. This is undoubtedly one of the masterworks of the Yuan blue-and-white porcelain in terms of the outstanding workmanship in every element, including the form, decoration, and the color of the cobalt blue.