Meiping Vase with carved Dragon Motif (1300s): Art, History and Details

Meiping Vase with carved Dragon Motif (1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

A fierce coiling dragon chasing a pearl amid mist and clouds—a symbol of fertility and power—decorates this sturdy vase. Its shoulder is incised with a band of lotus flowers and the base features a border of lotus petals. Meiping, literally prunus vase, derives its name from being used to display a single floral spray, traditionally a branch of blossoming plum (or prunus), apricot, or cherry.

Object facts

• Title: Meiping Vase with carved Dragon Motif
• Date: 1300s
• Culture: South China, Yuan dynasty (1279–1368)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Porcelain with pale bluish-white (qingbai; 青白) glaze and carved decoration
• Dimensions: Overall: 27.6 x 16.5 cm (10 7/8 x 6 1/2 in.)
• Collection: China - Yuan Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 2020.189

A detail from the museum

In Chinese mythology, the dragon is believed to transport human souls to the heavens after death.

Collection credit

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift

Further reading listed by the museum

• Trubner, Henry. Chinese Ceramics from the Prehistoric Period Through Ch'ien Lung; A Loan Exhibition from Collections in America and Japan. March 14 to April 27, 1952. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum, 1952.
• Salisbury, Tonya. The Role of Dragons in Chinese Culture. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2004.
• Von Spee, Clarissa. "Chinese Ceramics and Works on Paper." In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 194–229. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022. Von Spee, Clarissa. "Chinese Ceramics and Works on Paper." In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 194-229. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022.

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.