Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels: May 2018

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Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels

Taiwan National Palace Museum: 2nd Floor Gallery 203a
(Antiquities Special Exhibition 01) - November 2017

Vase with lotus & dragon decoration - underglaze blue porcelain from Emperor Yongle (朱棣, Zhu Di) reign (1402-1424), Ming Dynasty.

The National Palace Museum, located in Taipei and Taibao, Taiwan, has a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of ancient Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks. Gallery 203a (Antiquities Special Exhibition 01) that looks into collections from the court of the Ming Emperor Yongle (1360-1424).
This blog comes in several pages, this is Gallery 203a of the second floor galleries, click below to navigate to other sections:

Go To 3rd Flr
↑
< Go to 2nd Flr 201 | Go To 2nd Flr Main | Go to 2nd Flr 203b>
↓
Go To 1st Flr

The reign of the Ming Emperor Yongle (1402-1424) witnessed major advances both culturally and military, including the construction of the vast Frobidden City and many major naval expeditions to explore and have cultural exchange with the rest of world. There was also the production of numerous fine and beautiful imperial wares, including the renown Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain. Just as the rest of the world admired and adopted some Chinese art styles during cross-culture exchange, the Chinese too adopted some of the foreign art styles. This gallery and the following artwork (unless otherwise stated) showcases the fine artwork that was collected and promoted during the Yongle Peiod.

"Procession through the desert" - 2153hX1300w painting from the Topkapi Saray Museum Library.
Ming porcelain in underglaze blue transported by a cart trudging through the desert (probably along the Silk Road). The porcelain were precious that traveled from afar.

"`Aja'ib al-Makhluqat" - early 14th Century painting copy of the one at the British Museum.
This painting of a Chinese among Arabic musicians illustrates the trade exchange between the Arabic world and China, and it's influence on Chinese art.

A stem bowl with paired dragons and behind it one with five dragons - sweet-white glaze porcelain. These were part of a set presented to the Tibetan Karmapa. The Karmapa (རྒྱལ་བ་, Victorious One) is the head of the Karma Kagyu, the largest sub-school of the Kagyu (བཀའ་བརྒྱུད), itself one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
Sweet white porcelain (甜白瓷) is a famous porcelain that was produced in the Jingdezhen porcelain kiln during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. This glazed porcelain has a visually appealing color, like soft white sugar, inspiring delicate feelings, hence its name “sweet white”. Authentic sweet white porcelain form this period appears pale pink under light. Secondly, some of the glazed areas (more obvious near the base) have a blue color.

Spoon with lotus & Sanskrit letters decoration - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain.

Posters showing the fine detailing of the blue Sanskrit letters and the bottom lotus pattern; and the detailing of the spoon holder with basket weave rattan pattern

Tall stem bowl with Tibetan letters - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain from the Xuande Period (1425-1435) of the Ming Dynasty.

Monk-cap-shaped ewer with Tibetan letters, lotus & paired dragons - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain from the Xuande Period (1425-1435) of the Ming Dynasty.

Vase with flowers decoration - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain.

Flask with four-seasons flowers decoration - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain.

Flask with dragon & cloud decoration - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain.

Flask with intertwined flowers decoration - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain.

Ewer with flowers decoration - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain.

Ewer with flowers decoration decoration - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain, cover was added later during Qing Dynasty.

Central Asian brass jug with hornless dragon handle and Arabic writing from the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum.

This illustrates that the designs of the underglaze blue tankards of the Yongle period originated from Central Asia.

Tankard with dragon-shaped handle and flowers decoration - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain. See the similarity in design style as that of the preceding brass jug.

Flask with paired ruyi (如意) handles & camellia - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain.

Flask with paired ruyi (如意) handles and blue figures. - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain.

13th Century European brass flask - brass canteen with etching from the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art of the Smithsonian Institution.
The bulges of the European flask shows bulges on the front and is concave at the back. The concave has areas to insert rods to serve as support for placing the flask at an angle allowing the liquid inside to flow out. The Yongle porcelain flask (shown below) is similar if form but does not have this function.

Flask with flowers decoration - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain.

Sweet-white glaze flask with paired ruyi (如意) handles .

West Asian/North African brass basin - from the collection of the British Museum.
The flaring rim basin was perhaps used with a handled ewer as a set for washing a person's hands.

Angled-rim basin with intertwined flowers decor - Blue and white (青花) Qīng-huā porcelain.

Indian handled braided flask - Mamluk Dynasty (1250-1517) earthenware flask from the collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Sweet-white glaze gourd-shaped flask with paired belt-shaped handle.

This blog comes in several pages, this is Gallery 203a of the second floor galleries, click below to navigate to other sections:
Go To 3rd Flr
↑
< Go to 2nd Flr 201 | Go To 2nd Flr Main | Go to 2nd Flr 203b>
↓

Go To 1st Flr

Second Floor Layout Plan National Palace Museum Taipei
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National Palace Museum
(國立故宮博物院)
No. 221, Sec 2, Zhi Shan Rd, Shilin District, Taipei City, Taiwan 111.
Entry fee: NTD 250
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