Pitcher with Inlaid Figure and Willow Design (1200s): Art, History and Details

Pitcher with Inlaid Figure and Willow Design (1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Representations of the elite’s elegant gatherings also appear on craft art designs, particularly depictions of the four accomplishments celebrated as cultivated pastimes by the scholar-literati elite—that is, playing stringed instruments and chess, and practicing calligraphy and painting. The image on this rare Korean inlaid celadon of two figures sitting together under a tree is comparable to renderings featuring the accomplishment motif of playing chess, or baduk in Korean.

Object facts

• Title: Pitcher with Inlaid Figure and Willow Design
• Date: 1200s
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: celadon ware with inlaid white and black slip decoration
• Dimensions: Diameter: 14.3 cm (5 5/8 in.); Overall: 20.4 cm (8 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1917.356

A detail from the museum

As one of the oldest board games invented in China, this East Asian chess is still played in international competition venues.

Collection credit

Gift of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Yi, Jong-min. "The New Trends on the latter 14th Century's Inlaid Celadon of Koryŏ Dynasty: Focusing on Table Ware [14世紀 後半 高麗象嵌靑磁의 新傾向: 음식기명을 중심으로]." Korean Journal of Art History vol. 3 (1994): 5–40.
• Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918-1392. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2003.
• 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.

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.