Dish with phoenix and flower motifs

Dateearly 14th century

Label Text

Brilliant cobalt pigment and a refined porcelain body are essential to the striking beauty of blue-and-white wares, which rose in Chinese ceramic production in the fourteenth century largely as a result of huge demand in the central and western Asian markets. This large dish manifests the taste for elaborate designs derived from Islamic art, and its massive size was intended to accommodate communal meals customary among Muslims.

Object number76.7

ProvenancePurchased for Seattle Art Museum with funds from the Elizabeth M. Fuller Memorial Fund and from the Edwin W. and Catherine M. Davis Foundation, St. Paul, Minnesota, January 6, 1976

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, 50 Years: A Legacy of Asian Art, June 30, 1983 - May 30, 1984. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Porcelain Stories: From China to Europe, Feb. 17 - May 7, 2000. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Glaze, Pattern and Image: Decoration in Chinese Ceramics, Sept. 7 - Nov. 19, 2002. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Chinese Art: A Seattle Perspective, Dec. 22, 2007 - July 26, 2009. Tokyo, Japan, Suntory Museum of Art, Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum, July 25 - Sept. 6, 2009 (Kobe, Japan, Kobe City Museum, Sept. 19 - Dec. 6, 2009; Kofu, Japan, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Dec. 23, 2009 - Feb. 28, 2010; Atami, Japan, MOA Museum of Art, Mar. 13 - May 9, 2010; Fukuoka, Japan, Fukuoka Art Museum, May 23 - July 19, 2010). Cat. no. 75. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Luminous: The Art of Asia, Oct. 13, 2011 - Jan. 8, 2012. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing.Published ReferencesTrubner, Henry. Asian Art in the Seattle Art Museum: Fifty Years of Collecting. Seattle, Wash.: Seattle Art Museum, 1983; reproduced p. 9. Selected Works. Seattle, Wash.: Seattle Art Museum, 1991; p. 164. Harding, Beverly. The Secret of Porcelain: A Family Guide. Seattle, Wash.: Seattle Art Museum, 2000; pp. 4, 21. Finlay, Robert. The Pilgrim Art: Cultures of Porcelain in World History. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2010; reproduced pl. 16. Froula, Christina. "Proust's China." Modernism/modernity 19, no. 2 (April 2012): pp. 227-254, reproduced p. 238, fig. 6. Schroeder, Paul A. and Gary Erickson. "Kaolin: From Ancient Porcelains to Nanocomposites." Elements: An International Magazine of Mineralogy, Geochemistry, and Petrology 10 no. 3 (June 2014): reproduced on cover, fig. 5C, p. 181. Waugh, Daniel C. "The Arts of China in Seattle." The Silk Road 12 (2014): pp. 137-152, reproduced p.145, fig. 25. Qian, Zhaoming (ed.). Modernism and the Orient. New Orleans: University of New Orleans Press, 2012; p. 87, reproduced fig. 6. Foong, Ping, Xiaojin Wu, and Darielle Mason. "An Asian Art Museum Transformed." Orientations vol. 51, no. 3 (May/June 2020): p. 61, reproduced fig. 22 (installation view).

Credit LinePurchased in memory of Elizabeth M. Fuller with funds from the Elizabeth M. Fuller Memorial Fund and from the Edwin W. and Catherine M. Davis Foundation, St. Paul, Minnesota

DimensionsDiameter: 18 3/4 in. (47.6cm)

MediumPorcelain with underglaze cobalt-blue decoration