Guided tour · For everyone · From China to the world · 1350–1790

Blue and white

How cobalt blue on white travelled from China to Turkey, Holland, Japan, Mexico, Korea and England: ten pieces, roughly in the order they were made.

Opens the interactive flight at this tour, with a guide's voice. It needs a modern browser; the same works are shown below.

Works

10

Time

about 15 min

Collections

7

About this tour

Blue painted on white: few looks have travelled so far. Our story starts in China, with cobalt brought from Persia. Then people around the world admired it, traded it, copied it and made it their own. Here are ten pieces from seven museums, roughly in the order they were made. At every work, look first, then discover.

We begin in China, in the 1300s, at the kilns of Jingdezhen.

The 10 works

1. 

   Work 1 of 10

   Plate

   China, Jingdezhen · mid-14th century · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

   Something swims in the middle of this big plate. What is it?

   A fish with spiky fins, gliding between water plants.

   The potters of Jingdezhen painted it with cobalt under a clear glaze, then fired it. The cobalt came from Persia, far to the west, and many big plates like this one went back west, to buyers in the Islamic world.

2. 

   Work 2 of 10

   Tankard with floral decoration in underglaze blue

   China, Ming dynasty · Xuande reign, 1426–1435 · National Palace Museum, Taipei

   This is Chinese porcelain, but its shape came from far away. Which part gives it away?

   The handle and the tall straight neck: the shape of a metal tankard from the Islamic world.

   Potters at the imperial kilns copied the shapes of metal and jade vessels from Central Asia and the Middle East. This one is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

3. 

   Work 3 of 10

   Arrow Vase with Persian Inscriptions and Floral Scrolls

   China, Jingdezhen kilns · 1506–1521 · Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland

   There is writing on this vase. Can you find it?

   Words in Persian, written in blue inside the circles. There is more on the neck.

   An arrow vase was used in an old Chinese game: players threw arrows into its neck. Chinese potters of the 1500s took in foreign shapes, motifs and ideas, to suit new customers in a world that was growing more connected.

4. 

   Work 4 of 10

   Footed Dish with Foliate Rim in Imitation of Chinese Porcelain

   Turkey, Ottoman · about 1570–80 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

   This dish looks Chinese. Is it?

   No. It was made in Turkey, around 1575, in imitation of Chinese porcelain.

   Many Ottoman sultans were avid collectors of Chinese porcelain. Turkish potters made their copies not in porcelain but in stonepaste, painted in blue under a clear glaze.

5. 

   Work 5 of 10

   Still Life with Flowers in a Wan-Li Vase

   Ambrosius Bosschaert · 1619 · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

   A grand bouquet. What holds it?

   A Chinese vase, painted in blue, with a gilded mount around its neck. Porcelain was so precious that Europeans set it in gold and silver.

   Bosschaert painted on copper, flower by flower. The vase is Chinese porcelain from the reign of the Wanli emperor, a kind that often appears in Bosschaert's still lifes.

6. 

   Work 6 of 10

   Pot with the Initials L. G.

   Japan, Arita · 1660–1680 · Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis

   This bottle was made for one particular person. Who?

   L.G.: the initials of the client who ordered it, probably someone in Europe. Nobody knows who.

   It was made in Arita, in western Japan, and painted with a brush in cobalt blue before firing. It would have left from the port of Imari for Europe, probably on a ship of the Dutch East India Company.

7. 

   Work 7 of 10

   Apothecary Jar

   Damian Hernandez · about 1680 · Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven

   Blue flowers crowd every part of this jar but one. Where?

   A broad white band sweeps around the jar, left almost bare.

   Damian Hernandez made it in Mexico, then part of New Spain, for a pharmacy. Chinese porcelain reached Mexico on the Manila galleons, which crossed the Pacific every year, and Mexican potters answered with blue and white of their own, on tin-glazed earthenware.

8. 

   Work 8 of 10

   Flower Pyramid

   Adrianus Kocx, De Grieksche A factory, Delft · about 1690 · Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland

   What do you think this tall tower was for?

   Flowers. The spouts are where flowers can be placed, so the whole tower becomes a column of blooms.

   Flower pyramids were among the most complex and luxurious ceramics made in Delft in the late 1600s. This one comes from the Greek A factory, which made pieces for Queen Mary II of England. Faith, Hope and Love decorate the base.

9. 

   Work 9 of 10

   Jar with Dragon in Clouds Design in Underglaze Cobalt - blue

   Korea, Joseon dynasty · 18th century · Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles

   A dragon winds around this jar. Can you find its face?

   Round eyes, long whiskers and sharp teeth, painted with quick strokes of blue.

   Korean potters made blue and white from the 1400s on. The cobalt was costly, so at first only the royal household could use these wares. The dragon was an emblem of the king.

10. 

    Work 10 of 10

    Tea pot, from a child's tea set, in blue and white

    Caughley Porcelain Factory, England · about 1780–90 · Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis

    A teapot from a child's tea set, made in England. What kind of landscape is on it?

    A Chinese-style scene: water, reeds, birds and little pavilions.

    More than four hundred years after Jingdezhen, an English factory decorated a tea set small enough for a child's hands with a Chinese-style scene in blue and white.

The end of the tour

Blue and white, around the world.

From Jingdezhen to Turkey, Holland, Arita, Mexico, Korea and an English toy tea set: the same two colours, admired, copied and made new for more than four hundred years.

Questions at the end

Start this tour in Auriaan

Works from these collections

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• National Palace Museum
• Cleveland Museum of Art
• Rijksmuseum
• Minneapolis Institute of Art
• Yale University Art Gallery
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art

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