Bowl with Inlaid Cranes and Clouds Design (1200s–1300s): Art, History and Details

Bowl with Inlaid Cranes and Clouds Design (1200s–1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

As early as the seventh century, the practice of drinking tea and wine became an important part of elite leisure culture in Korea. A wide bowl like this example was especially suitable for drinking powdered tea shaved from a compressed tea cake, the most commonly enjoyed type during the Goryeo period. The image of flying cranes amid clouds that decorate the inner wall of this tea bowl is considered an auspicious sign particularly about the king's good governance.

Object facts

• Title: Bowl with Inlaid Cranes and Clouds Design
• Date: 1200s–1300s
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: pottery
• Dimensions: Diameter of mouth: 19.7 cm (7 3/4 in.); Overall: 8.2 cm (3 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1921.629

A detail from the museum

An actual event in 1121, which constitutes a groups of cranes hovering above the palace in Kaifeng, the capital of the Chinese Northern Song dynasty, soon became internationally recognized as a heavenly sign about the ruler's virtuous governance.

Collection credit

Gift of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Goryeo: The Glory of Korea [대고려, 그 찬란한 도전]. Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2018.
• Lee, Young-hee. "The Study on Techniques and their Interrelations among Craft Arts of the Goryeo Dynasty [고려시대 공예기법 연구 상호관련성을 중심으로]." Misulsa hakbo 22 (2004): 133-170.
• Yi, Jongmin. "The New Trends on the latter 14th Century's Inlaid Celadon of Koryŏ Dynasty [14世紀後半高麗象嵌靑磁의新傾向]." Korean Journal of Art History vol. 3 (1994): 5–40.

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.