Yue kiln celadon bowl with petal mouth

The piece is a bowl, and Celadon (qing-glaze) porcelain is the technique that decides how it reads. The pattern is laid before firing, so the colour sits under a clear glaze, protected and luminous rather than painted on top.

A bowl of this kind was made to be seen closely and from afar at once. The celadon (qing-glaze) porcelain ground rewards the near view; the silhouette does the work across a room.

The Yue-ware court understood porcelain as a statement of capacity. To fire a bowl without a flaw was to prove the workshop, and behind it the state, could do the impossible reliably.

The celadon (qing-glaze) porcelain bowl is a quiet lesson in Chinese taste: control of fire first, beauty second, and the two arriving together. Sinocra carries the work, with more from The Palace Museum, in the shop.

Yue kiln celadon bowl with petal mouth, The Palace Museum

Object details

NameYue kiln celadon bowl with petal mouth (越窑青釉花瓣口碗)
Artefact no.新00082670
TechniqueCeladon (qing-glaze) porcelain (青釉)
PeriodYue-ware dynasty (Tang to Five Dynasties)
CollectionThe Palace Museum, Beijing
SourcePalace Museum Digital Collection (数字文物库)

Image © The Palace Museum. View the original in the Palace Museum Digital Collection.

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