Jar with Dragon Design (1700s): Art, History and Details

Jar with Dragon Design (1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

As a mythical creature believed to make rain, the dragon served as a symbol of rulers in premodern East Asia. Here, a cobalt blue dragon is depicted flying through clouds to catch a flaming, wish-granting jewel called a cintamani. In the royal court, the shorter type of dragon jar held wine, while the tall type, like this one, held flowers. This porcelain once belonged to Robert W. Moore, who developed an interest in Korean art while serving in the US Army in South Korea during the 1950s and 1960s. Later, the CMA acquired this important work through an auction sale in 1986.

Object facts

• Title: Jar with Dragon Design
• Date: 1700s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: porcelain with underglaze blue
• Dimensions: Diameter of base: 14.7 cm (5 13/16 in.); Overall: 39.5 cm (15 9/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1986.85

A detail from the museum

A mythical creature believed to have the power to make rain, the dragon is a prominent symbol of rulers in premodern East Asia; the image of dragons was used exclusively for the king's paraphernalia.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1985.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 2 (February 1986): 26–71.
• Wilson, J. Keith. "Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 8 (1990): 286–323.
• Bang, Byung-sun. "A Chronology of late Joseon-dynasty Porcelains Based on the Analysis of Dragon-and-Cloud Motifs [雲龍文 분석을 통해서 본 조선 후기 백자의 편년 체제]." Musul sahak yeongu (1998): 45–78.

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.