Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century: Landscapes, Scholars’ Motifs and Narratives
17世纪的中国瓷：山水，文玩和故事

During the turbulent, war-torn years in the twilight of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), China’s scholar-gentry and merchant classes constituted a new market for porcelain that offered an aesthetic escape through serene landscape and scholarly-themed decoration. The interests and tastes of this scholar class, however, were very different from late Ming imperial style. The new patrons preferred elegant paintings of landscapes, images that represented official advancement and bureaucratic success, and narratives from ancient histories and novels. These subjects reflected the ethical and political concerns of highly educated groups. Showcasing more than sixty pieces of blue-and-white and polychrome porcelains, paintings, calligraphy, books, and seals, the exhibition illustrated how changing patronage dramatically affected decoration on porcelains in China during the middle decades of the seventeenth century.