Jar with Lion-Head Handles (1300s): Art, History and Details

Jar with Lion-Head Handles (1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Appreciated for its strong profile, brilliant blue color, and firm delineation of the decorative patterns, this jar is a classic example of Yuan dynasty blue-and-white ware. This type of ware was produced no later than the 1330s for both domestic use (the court and common people alike) and overseas trade. This example testifies to the transmission of artistic ideas and techniques between China and the rest of the great Mongol Empire as a result of trade. The cobalt that was used for the blue underglaze decoration was imported from Iran, likely from Kashan. The band of cloud-collar motifs with phoenixes set against floral grounds, as shown here, is an artistic vocabulary that can also be found in Iranian decorative arts of the Ilkhanid period (1256–1353).

Object facts

• Title: Jar with Lion-Head Handles
• Date: 1300s
• Culture: China, Jiangxi Province, Jingdezhen, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: porcelain with underglaze painted decoration
• Dimensions: Diameter of mouth: 15.6 cm (6 1/8 in.); Overall: 39.4 x 37.5 cm (15 1/2 x 14 3/4 in.)
• Collection: China - Yuan Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1962.154

A detail from the museum

The characters for "palace" and "south" are scratched into the white glaze on the vessel's shoulder, suggesting that it was once kept in a specific location in a palace.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Janus in Limbo.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 50, no. 1, 1963, pp. 3–6.
• “Oriental Art Recently Acquired by American Museums.” Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, vol. 17, 1963, pp. 43–65.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

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.