A blue-splashed pottery jar, Tang dynasty | 唐 白釉藍彩罐

One of the outstanding characteristics of Tang dynasty ceramic art is the bold application of vivid colored glazes on a pale or white ground. The present jar epitomizes this in a remarkably minimalist yet striking manner, with the painterly, abstract splashes of cobalt blue contrasting pleasingly against the ground of white slip and straw-colored glaze. This striking pattern highlights the jar's undulating profile, exemplifying the swelling forms and dynamic contours. Although Tang dynasty art borrows much from foreign sources, the present shape is considered to be wholly native. An example of this type is in the collection of the Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge (accession. no. 2006.170.264) and published on the Museum's website; and another, preserved with a cover, excavated in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, in 1974, now in the Yangzhou Museum, is illustrated in Geng Baochang, Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan [Compendium of Chinese Art- Porcelain], Taipei, 1993, pl. 433.