Around the World in Blue and White: Selections from the William C. Weese Collection of Chinese Ceramics
Around the
World
in Blue and White
Selections from the William C. Weese Collection of Chinese Ceramics
On view: Dec 2021 - Feb 2024
Natsu Oyobe, Curator of Asian Art
Trace the fascinating and sometimes troubling stories behind the world’s most desired ceramics
The technology and taste for blue and white porcelain originated in China in the fourteenth century, and quickly set off a worldwide craze that lasted five hundred years. Installed across four different galleries at UMMA, this exhibition explores that history and tracks the influence of blue and white ceramics across the globe.
1969/2.93
Title
Chinoiserie plate with four figures in a landscape
Artist(s)
Dutch
Object Creation Date
circa 1660
Medium & Support
tin-glazed earthenware (delftware)
Dimensions
2 3/16 x 13 13/16 x 13 13/16 in. (5.4 x 35 x 35 cm);2 3/16 x 13 13/16 x 13 13/16 in. (5.4 x 35 x 35 cm);x 13 13/16 in. x 35 cm
Credit Line
The Paul Leroy Grigaut Memorial Collection
Subject matter
This Chinoiserie plate, made in the Dutch city of Delft in imitation of imported Chinese porcelain, depictsfour men sitting in a landscape. a stylized scene that evokes traditional Chinese images of scholars conversing in a natural setting. The figure seated under the arch holds an object in his lap that the leftmost figure leans forward to inspect more closely, while the man on the right looks away into the distance. The fourth figure, with his hands tucked into his sleeves, may represent a servant, although the artist who painted this plate was primarily concerned with imitating decorative effects, and was probably unaware of the differentiation of status made through careful distinctions of gesture and dress in Chinese painting.
Physical Description
Four men sit under a canopied arch in a Chinese-style landscape with pine trees and a river in the well of this blue-and-white plate. The figure seated under the center of the arch holds an object on his lap, which the leftmost figure leans forward to inspect more closely. The old man who sits at the right of the group looks off to his right. The paneled border of the rim is decorated with four reserves featuring the figure of a seated Chinese man. The reserves are separated by a pair of narrow panels flanking a larger central panel. The narrow panels contain a stylized flower motif, while the larger panels are decorated with more elaborate floral designs.
Primary Object Classification
Ceramic
Primary Object Type
plate
Collection Area
Western
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Chinoiserie plate with four figures in a landscape
tin-glazed earthenware (delftware)
2 3/16 x 13 13/16 x 13 13/16 in. (5.4 x 35 x 35 cm);2 3/16 x 13 13/16 x 13 13/16 in. (5.4 x 35 x 35 cm);x 13 13/16 in. x 35 cm
The Paul Leroy Grigaut Memorial Collection
PG2020.2.130
Title
Charger
Artist(s)
Chinese
Artist Nationality
Chinese (culture or style)
Object Creation Date
1662 - 1722 (Qing dynasty, Kangxi reign)
Medium & Support
porcelain with cobalt underglaze and clear glaze
Dimensions
2 3/8 in. (6.03 cm)
Credit Line
Promised gift of William C. Weese, M.D., LSA ‘65
Subject matter
This charger is decorated with a blooming lotus flower radiating from the center to the rim. In each separate petal, a branch of flower is depicted. This design is evocative of mural paintings on ceilings in Buddhist caves.
Physical Description
A blue and white plate centered with a circular panel containing a blossoming lotus encircled by two borders of lappets containing flowering plants, with a shaped rim. There is a studio mark within a double circle on the base.
Primary Object Classification
Ceramic
Collection Area
Asian
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Charger
porcelain with cobalt underglaze and clear glaze
2 3/8 in. (6.03 cm)
Promised gift of William C. Weese, M.D., LSA ‘65
1972/2.158
Title
Platter with an inscription from a Hadith [a saying of the Prophet Muhammad], signed by Ali ibn al-Hajj Muhammad
Artist(s)
Ali ibn al-Hajj Muhammad
Object Creation Date
17th century - 18th century
Medium & Support
fritware with underglaze painting, and clear glaze
Dimensions
2 15/16 in x 17 ¾ in x 17 ¾ in (7.5 cm x 45.1 cm x 45.1 cm);2 15/16 in (7.5 cm);x 17 ¾ in x 17 ¾ in x 45.1 cm x 45.1 cm
Credit Line
Transfer from the College of Architecture and Design
Label copy
March 28, 2009
This platter represents the perfect marriage of Persian and Chinese aesthetics. It was the Chinese who originated blue-and-white porcelain in the fourteenth century, using cobalt imported from western Asia for the blue pigment. Such wares were eagerly collected in Islamic cultures of the Middle East, where they were often imitated, as here, in fritware. The style and palette of this platter, as well as the potter’s signature on the back, indicate it was made in Kirman, a city in southern Iran. A Chinese-inspired floral scroll opens to create a central medallion space, where a large inscription in Thuluth script is reserved in white from the blue background. The inscribed text is a well-known Shi’ite hadith—one of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad—that honors his descendants Hassan and Hussein. The illusion of filigree-work in the medallion recalls the pierced steel standards carried during the mourning ritual processions that commemorate the martyrdom of Hussein. Given this content, it is likely that the potter crafted this magnificent, unusually large platter to donate to a religious institution, perhaps a mausoleum, where it would have been displayed in a niche.
Subject matter
The central decoration contains a medallion in a pointed oval shape featuring a fragment of a hadith, or saying of the Prophet Muhammad. The rim is decorated with foliage, which grows from the edge of the medallion. There is a signature on the center of the foot which attributes Ali ibn al-Hajj Muhammad as the artist. Comparable objects attribute this to Kirman, Iran.
The hadith chosen comes from Isa al-Tirmidhi and states: Qala Rasulu I-Lahi salla Llahu 'alayhi wa sallama: Husaynun minni wa ana min Husaynin. Translation: the Prophet of God, may God bless him and grant him salvation, said: Husayn has issued from me and I from Husayn.
Physical Description
A blue and white platter. White porcellanous body with painting in blue under a clear glaze slightly tinged with blue-green.
Primary Object Classification
Ceramic
Primary Object Type
dish
Collection Area
Western
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Platter with an inscription from a Hadith [a saying of the Prophet Muhammad], signed by Ali ibn al-Hajj Muhammad
fritware with underglaze painting, and clear glaze
2 15/16 in x 17 ¾ in x 17 ¾ in (7.5 cm x 45.1 cm x 45.1 cm);2 15/16 in (7.5 cm);x 17 ¾ in x 17 ¾ in x 45.1 cm x 45.1 cm
Transfer from the College of Architecture and Design
Featured Object
Icon
Steven Young Lee
Steven Young Lee is a contemporary American ceramic artist who interrogates the history and symbolic meaning of blue and white ware. In Icon, he combines an image of Bruce Lee, an iconic Hollywood movie star of East Asian descent, and the dragon and flower-scroll motifs ubiquitous in many exported blue and white wares. The images of Lee and the dragons are fractured across nineteen small circular plates, as if to suggest the distance between the reality of Asia/Asians and how they are imagined in American consciousness.
On view in UMMA’s Chinese gallery
Steven Young Lee, Icon, porcelain, cobalt inlay, and glaze, 2019. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Museum purchase made possible by the William C. Weese, M.D. Endowment for Ceramic Arts, 2021/1.127.A-S. Courtesy the artist and Duane Reed Gallery © Stephen Young Lee
Around the World
Visitors will find Blue and White ceramics throughout four of UMMA’s galleries:
Chinese Gallery
First commissioned by Muslim merchants living in China, blue and white porcelain found its way to Southeast and East Asia, the Middle East, the eastern coast of the African continent, and then to Europe and North and South America. In the Chinese gallery, see a grand display of these highly coveted items. Many of them traveled from China to the Netherlands via Dutch East India Company ships, along with tea, silks, paintings, and other luxury items.
Beaker vase
Ming dynasty (circa 1640)
porcelain with blue underglaze painting
17 3/4 in. (45.08 cm)
Promised gift of William C. Weese, M.D., LSA ‘65
Korean Gallery
Chinese blue and white porcelains have been exported to Korea since the early 15th century. Korean kilns also produced regional porcelains with expensive cobalt imported from China. In the Korean gallery, see a magnificent dragon jar and scholarly implements used by social elites.
Ceramic Screen in Wood Frame
Qing dynasty (early 19th century)
porcelain with blue underglaze painting and wood
17 x 11 3/4 in. (43.18 x 29.85 cm)
Promised gift of William C. Weese, M.D., LSA ‘65
Japanese Gallery
Japanese blue and white porcelains rose to prominence as replacements of Chinese porcelains in the early 17th century, and continued to be popular exports in the European market. In the Japanese gallery, see porcelains in various forms and decorations that show mutual inspirations of the two global brands.
Japanese
Covered Imari jar with scene of young woman playing a koto
1820-1850
porcelain, blue underglaze and enamel overglaze
16 9/16 in. x 9 7/16 in. ( 42 cm x 24 cm )
Gift of the William T. and Dora G. Hunter Collection
South and Southeast Asian Gallery
Thailand and Vietnam long produced their own local versions of expensive Chinese blue and white porcelains. In the South and Southeast Asian gallery, find fascinating examples of these copies using clay and glaze local to those regions. In addition, salvaged pots from a late 17th century shipwreck tell the story of the vibrant global market and fervent demand for blue and white ceramics.
Kendi
15th-16th century
stoneware with cobalt underglaze painting
5 3/4 in. (14.61 cm)
Promised gift of William C. Weese, M.D., LSA ‘65
This exhibition celebrates the new William C. Weese Collection of Chinese Ceramics and the endowment to establish the William C. Weese Program for Ceramic Arts at UMMA.