Chinese Dish with deep rounded sides and everted rim

Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period, 1673

27cm diameter

Painted in underglaze cobalt blue with red.

Image taken from Sir Michael Butler, Margaret Medley and Stephen Little, Seventeenth Century Chinese Porcelain: From the Butler Family Collection, Virginia, 1990, p.196.

The scene here is another depicting Oriole twirling a twig (See also description  for Chinese Dish) while Student Zhang watches her in awe from the steps leading into the Buddah hall.  Oriole is with Crimson who, in comparison, is depicted less elegantly with a hunched over posture, perhaps indicating her lower status.  

The colouring of this dish is unusual as it is painted in cobalt blue but also contains flashes of red in the trees.  The effect is quite stunning although simple and the added splash of red offsets the blue beautifully and drags the eye to all corners of the plate.  The landscape in this scene is also remarkable.  The ceramics in The Burrell Collection do not include backgrounds such as this but instead tend to focus on the interior.  There is a remarkable curving round of the bay which adds dimension to the scene which is then juxtaposed with the floating rock in the background.  This curving is also repeated in the leaning of the trees and in Crimson;s stooping figure - all are in harmony with the roundness of the actual plate.

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