Bowl with the Three Friends of Winter (Plum, Bamboo, Pine)

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Gallery 334, Asian Art, third floor

Main Building

Museum map

Bowl with the Three Friends of Winter (Plum, Bamboo, Pine)

1400-1500

Artist/maker unknown, Chinese

With its freely brushed design, painted in modulated tones of deep, inky blue against a glossy white ground, the exterior of this bowl represents a popular Confucian theme: the Three Friends of Winter. The Three Friends—pine, bamboo, and plum—were so named for their shared quality of remaining green during the cold winter months. The hardy pine flourishes in harsh environments and is a symbol of longevity; the tall hollow-jointed bamboo shows strength and resilience in its uprightness yet bends and conforms in adverse conditions; and the plum is the first flower to bloom in late winter, representing perseverance. Together the Three Friends came to epitomize the moral characteristics of integrity and fortitude that a scholar-gentleman was to learn and live by.

Gallery 334, Asian Art, third floor

Object Details

Title:

Bowl with the Three Friends of Winter (Plum, Bamboo, Pine)

Date:

1400-1500

Artist:

Artist/maker unknown, Chinese

Medium:

Porcelain with underglaze blue decoration (Jingdezhen ware)

Dimensions:

3 5/16 x 8 11/16 x 8 3/4 inches (8.4 x 22 x 22.2 cm)

Classification:

Containers

Credit Line:

Purchased with the Henry B. Keep Fund, the Joseph E. Temple Fund, the Bloomfield Moore Fund, the John T. Morris Fund, and with funds contributed by Mrs. Walter H. Annenberg, The Beneficia Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. J. Welles Henderson, Mrs. Howard H. Lewis, Mrs. William F. Machold, Mrs. Donald Petrie, Meyer P. Potamkin, Hugh Scott, and Mrs. William L. Van Alen, 1984

Accession Number:

1984-116-1

Geography:

Made in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, China, Asia

Context:

Dynasty: Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Period: Xuande Period (1426-1435)

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Gallery 334, Asian Art, third floor

Main Building

Museum map

Bowl with the Three Friends of Winter (Plum, Bamboo, Pine)

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