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Jar with Dragon and Clouds Design
late 1600s
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
In traditional Korean art, dragons have been used as an emblem of royalty. Over many centuries, the ways of depicting this powerful mythical creature evolved and varied in response to artistic trends and socioeconomic changes. On this jar from the 1600s, the artist drew a whimsical dragon with bulging eyes who wraps his scaled body around the vessel. The artist’s aim here was to capture the wild spirit of the supernatural creature with free flowing calligraphic brushstrokes.
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Details
- Title: Jar with Dragon and Clouds Design
- Date Created: late 1600s
- Physical Dimensions: Diameter of base: 13.7 cm (5 3/8 in.); Overall: 34.7 cm (13 11/16 in.)
- Provenance: (London Gallery, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Ceramic
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1986.69
- Medium: porcelain with underglaze iron
- Fun Fact: A mythical creature believed to have the power to make rain, the dragon is a prominent symbol of rulers in pre-modern East Asia, thus the image of dragons was used exclusively for the king's paraphernalia.
- Department: Korean Art
- Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
- Credit Line: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
- Collection: Korean Art
- Accession Number: 1986.69
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