Jar, Guan

The Chinese invention of porcelain fueled not only domestic but also global demands, boosting China’s export trade to the West. During the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), a significant development in the decoration of porcelain occurred at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, site of the later Ming imperial porcelain factories: Chinese potters, encouraged by Near Eastern traders, applied decoration utilizing cobalt oxide to achieve a rich underglaze blue, highly favored in the West.

The Art Museum’s jar belongs to a large group of Chinese blue-and-white porcelains manufactured for the Near Eastern trade. It was found in Damascus, Syria, a primary Western market for such wares. In the 1960s alone, more than 800 examples surfaced in the shops and stalls of cities such as Aleppo and Damascus, where they had survived in private hands since their export in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

In a fashion typical of such export wares, the painted decoration on the Art Museum’s jar combines elements of Western origin such as the scrolling vine (seen on the neck and body) with Chinese motifs such as tree peony blossoms. The delicate fruiting sprays of grapes, lychees, loquats, and pomegranates depicted on the shoulder are based on illustrations from Chinese pharmaceutical texts. The band of lotus blossoms within lappets - scale- or plaque-shaped designs - encircling the base of the jar is a rare decorative element.