An underglaze-red 'birds' faceted jar, Joseon dynasty, 18th century

Although the technique of underglaze copper-red painting was refined in the Goryeo period, rulers of the early Joseon dynasty wanted to distance themselves from the preceding dynasty and the associations of flamboyant red decoration with luxury and ostentation, which contradicted with Confucian ideals of austerity. Underglaze red was sparingly used as decorative accents on official blue and white wares. The technique was only fully reinvigorated in the 18th century, when certain groups of porcelains were liberally painted with vibrant copper-red pigment.

The present jar is notable for its vivid and masterful control of underglaze red, its sophisticated faceted form, and elegant yet spirited decoration. Each of the roundels enclose a silhouette of a bird mid-flight with wings outstretched above a foliate sprig that springs from rockwork. Despite the abbreviated manner of painting, the artisan succinctly captures a sense of movement and buoyancy in each vignette.

A very similar jar with double roundels is in the Ishii Collection, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba (accession no. 2005-KC-IS005). Another painted with a grapevine around the shoulder is in the collection of the Newark Museum, Newark (accession no. 1937. 37.450). Compare also a jar freely painted with a flowering branch motif, formerly from the collection of George Eumorfopoulos and now preserved in the Benaki Museum, Athens (accession no. GE 2910). For a jar of ovoid form painted with copper-red double roundels, see one exhibited in Glory of Korean Pottery and Porcelain of the Yi Dynasty, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1987, cat. no. 120.

For comparable blue and white examples, see two in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco: the first with roundels enclosing calligraphic characters formerly in the Average Brundage Collection (accession no. B64P46); the second with trigram medallions (accession no. 1998.22). Compare also a jar painted with bamboo in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 2005.123).