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| Keywords: Chinese - Beaker-Shaped Vase with Four Animals - Walters 491651 - Profile (2).jpg The hold of the Ming Ming emperors gradually weakened in the first decades of the 17th century; this eventually led to the collapse of that dynasty and the creation of a new one the Qing Ch'ing by the foreign-born Manchus At the porcelain manufacturing center of Jingdezhen Ching-te Chen the decline of the empire meant opportunity in the form of newly opening foreign markets Internal economic difficulties brought men with a broader knowledge of Chinese painting than had hitherto been the case and the result was the production of a series of vessels like this one of unprecedented ambitiousness On the body of the vase are a dragon and a tiger on the neck the unicorn Qilin Ch'i-lin and phoenix The whites have a positive value; more than that they are also pictorial actually standing for the mists that hover in front of waterfalls The relationship between neck and body is worked out in terms of white and blue areas; but the two parts compete for attention and there is no ordinary hierarchy A sophisticated playful hand is at work as is also suggested by the blurred edges- reminiscent of wet ink on paper- of the cloud around the dragon's head If the tortoise had been shown rather than the tiger the four creatures on this vase would constitute the four miraculous creatures one scaly one shelled one furry and one feathered Probably yin and yang polarities are more important here; the moist dragon is opposed to the dry tiger and a male phoenix is paired with a female unicorn Together they may allude to the ancient notion that the appearance of these creatures on earth is a sign of the rule of a just king In the middle years of the 17th century that would have been more of a hope than a reality ca 1640 1660 porcelain with underglaze blue cm 44 6 accession number 49 1651 28027 Henry Walters Baltimore date and mode of acquisition unknown Walters Art Museum Henry Walters Acquired by Henry Walters Masterpieces of Chinese Porcelain Walters place of origin China <gallery> File Chinese - Beaker-Shaped Vase with Four Animals - Walters 491651 - Profile jpg </gallery> Walters Art Museum license Porcelain vases Art of China in Masterpieces of Chinese Porcelain Walters Chinese porcelain in the Walters Art Museum Blue and white porcelain of the Qing Dynasty Tigers in Chinese art Fenghuang | ||||
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