This exceptional Chinese vase with its blue and white décor, dated to the mid-14th century, is a work crafted in China under the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), and long held in a French family.
The “Richard Kan vase” is a large porcelain meiping, with a rich décor painted in cobalt on a white ground: its crafting is exceptional, and can be ascribed to the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368). The blue-and-white décor was introduced in China under the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It resurfaced under the Yuan Dynasty, probably owing to craftsmen from the Persian world. The Yuan are actually a younger branch of the Mongol descendants of Genghis Khan, this furthering technical and artistic exchanges between Persia and China. A lavish novelty and great technological innovation, this high firing, at 1250 degrees or more, does not allow the slightest correction during the freehand painting.
The décor of this vase plays on variations of intensity of cobalt blue and is characterised by the masterly gesture and the combination of a typically Chinese repertory with a compartmented layout of the décor in six horizontal strips. The pattern associating peony flowers and phoenix – very rare on this type of form – calls to mind the imperial court. It was indeed under the Yuan Dynasty that the use of certain symbols – notably the phoenix – was restricted to members of Court or more exclusively the emperor and the empress.
Datable to the 1350s, the “Richard Kan vase” is an outstanding piece for its size and the excellence of its decoration, masterfully illustrating the apogee of the Chinese blue and white pottery. There is no similar vase in the French national collections.
The “Richard Kan vase” is shown on the 2nd floor of the Chinese collections, in the Chinese porcelains room; near to a treasure of the museum collections, there is the meiping vase with a white dragon, also dating to the Yuan Period and coming from the Grandidier collection (inv. G 1211).
Thanks to the support of the Society of the Friends of the Guimet Museum (SAMG), this vase has been donated by Mr. Richard Kan.
