The Jiajing reign ran for forty-five years, longer than most, and its workshops produced cloisonne in quantity and colour. This plate sets a dragon and a phoenix in the same field, the imperial pairing of male and female, heaven and earth, set in wire and enamel.
A plate is a test of the technique. There is no height to hide behind, only a flat ground where every cell must meet its neighbour cleanly. The Jiajing taste leans bright and busy, and the dragon-and-phoenix motif answers the reign’s taste for auspicious, legible symbols.
Cloisonne plates of this scale were court service ware, objects of display as much as use. The phoenix’s tail and the dragon’s scales are drawn in wire so fine the pattern reads at a distance and rewards the close look.
What the Ming wanted from its symbols was clarity. A dragon and a phoenix on a plate leave little to interpret.
Object details
| Name | Jiajing-mark cloisonne ‘Dragon and Phoenix’ plate (嘉靖款掐丝珐琅龙凤纹盘) |
|---|---|
| Artefact no. | 新00123730 |
| Technique | Cloisonne enamel (掐丝珐琅) |
| Period | Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522-1566) |
| Collection | The Palace Museum, Beijing |
| Source | Palace Museum Digital Collection (数字文物库) |
Image © The Palace Museum. View the original in the Palace Museum collection.