A Chinese porcelain blue and white dish with a ‘Master of the Rocks’ style landscape.
Lozenge mark within a double circle, early Kangxi period, c. 1680-1700.
Hand painted in underglaze blue. The center decorated within a double circle depicting a river landscape with mountains in washes of cobalt blue, layered rocks, trees, houses and flying birds in the background with clouds and a moon. The border decorated with a pine needle band alternated by blobby dots. The back is decorated with bamboo on the border and the base is marked with a Lozenge mark.
About ‘The Master of the Rocks’:
The ‘Master of the Rocks’ is a term coined by English collector Gerard Reitlinger. It is a distinct group of late Transitional and early Kangxi porcelain, whereby short, overlapping curved lines create complex impressions. The ‘Master of the Rocks’ is characterized by the painting style of Dong Qichang, a painter of the late Ming period. Here the human elements are almost lost in the exuberant natural scene, a venerated theme in traditional Chinese landscape painting that underwent a revival at this time.
Ref:
A dish from the same period and of the same style but with a censer mark is in the Ashmoleon Museum collection, Inv. No. EA1978.842 (gift of Gerald Reitlinger, 1978).
Another dish, also with a lozenge mark but of larger size and with a continuous scene without border decoration is in the Sir Michael Butler collection, Inv. No. 1432 and is published in Leaping the Dragon Gate, Teresa Canepa and Katherine Butler, p. 416 pl. III.4.66a-c.
A dish from the same period and of the same style but with a six-character Chenghua mark is in the collection of Jan Menze van Diepen Stichting, Inv. No. JMD-P-2233 and is published in Jan Menze van Diepen Stichting, A Selection from the Collection of Oriental Ceramics, Christiaan J.A. Jörg.
Dimensions:
Diameter 22 cm, height 3.5 cm.
Condition:
The rim with pieces of glaze loss, furthermore in excellent condition.
Inv. No: MW6-3
