White Porcelain Jar with Iron-Brown Underglaze Plum Blossom and Bamboo Design

Joseon · 국보 · 3F · Sculpture and Crafts · Buncheong Ware and White Porcelain

A renowned 16th-century masterpiece of iron-brown porcelain, celebrated for its dignified, stately form and superb painting. Bamboo and plum are rendered on the body with realistic brushwork: the bamboo, drawn in the boneless manner with rich gradations of tone, expresses staunch fidelity and noble spirit through its slender, upright leaves and its stalks spreading straight in all directions. On the opposite side, the plum's rounded, rising trunk contrasts with slim branches shooting straight upward, evoking a lyrical and antique mood. The refined brushwork clearly betrays the hand of a court painter, the result of the practice whereby officials of the Saongwon, in charge of royal porcelain, led painters of the Dohwaseo (Royal Bureau of Painting) each year to the official kilns to decorate the wares, so that in this piece we also encounter the "Four Gentlemen" painting technique of the 16th-century art world.

See it in person at the National Museum of Korea — 3F · Sculpture and Crafts · Buncheong Ware and White Porcelain

Source: based on official e-museum records (National Museum of Korea).