|
Dish with rounded sides and a narrow, everted rim, the glazed base with kiln grit. On the interior, in red, turquoise and black enamels, a central medallion showing the split-pagoda design: a river landscape with a boat, a human figure on a bridge approaching a pagoda, split by a channel from a temple complex in the foreground to forested and peaked mountains in the distance. The sides with four ornamental seals separated by four thorn-set cartouches comprising small landscapes with a human figure holding a parasol, or river scenes. The reverse plain.
There are several explanations regarding the origin of this peculiar design. One holds that the channel represents the split gateway as seen at Balinese pagodas, the other that the design is based on a map, perhaps of Jingdezhen. The Princessehof has a Jiajing period (1522-1566) dish decorated in underglaze blue from Jingdezhen with a towering pagoda in the centre, almost dividing the scene in two parts, which has also been suggested as the example for the split-pagoda design. There are two variations of this design, the main difference being the red seals: on one kind the characters are readable, on the other undecipherable. Shards with this design were unearthed in Pinghe and in various archaeological sites in Japan. Similar dishes of both kinds are found in many museum collections including the Seikado Bunko Art Museum in Tokyo, the Percival David Collection and the British Museum in London and the Topkapi Saray in Istanbul. This dish was collected in Indonesia.
|
)
