Amphora Vase (1723–35): Art, History and Details

Amphora Vase (1723–35) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This elegant vase, modeled in the shape of an amphora with dragon handles has perfect symmetry. Its celadon glaze is of exceptional purity and of subtle green color, all characteristics of classical Yongzheng-era monochrome porcelains. The amphora shape and dragon handles of this vase, seen earlier in the glazed stoneware of the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907), were revived during the Yongzheng period for achieving "antique-elegance" (guya) in aesthetics as well as technical perfection in ceramic art. Only four vases of this size and glaze are known to exist.

Object facts

• Title: Amphora Vase
• Date: 1723–35
• Culture: China, Jiangxi Province, Jingdezhen, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Yongzheng mark and period (1723–35)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: porcelain with celadon glaze
• Dimensions: Overall: 52.1 cm (20 1/2 in.)
• Collection: China - Qing Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1944.190

A detail from the museum

The shape of the vase derives from Greece and was introduced to China via the Middle East.

Collection credit

The Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection; Bequest of Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, 1944. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1944. Published as: Vase in Shape of T'ang Amphora with Ovoid Body, Tall Neck, with "Bamboo Joints" and Projecting Lip.
• Hollis, Howard. “Chinese and Korean Ceramics: Japanese Lacquer.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 31, no. 6 (June 1944): 103–106.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.