Jar with Dragon and Clouds Design
In traditional Korean art, dragons were used as an emblem of royalty. Over centuries, the ways of depicting this powerful mythical creature varied in response to artistic trends and socioeconomic changes. Here, the artist imagined with free-flowing calligraphic brushstrokes a whimsical dragon with bulging eyes who wraps his scaled body around the vessel. This piece was acquired from the London Gallery in Tokyo, Japan. Its owner, Tajima Mitsuru (born about 1936) is regarded as one of the pioneering Japanese art dealers to cultivate lasting relationships directly with collectors and museums i...
Details
- Palette
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Select a color to find related artworks.
- Dimensions
- diameter of base: width 0.137 m; overall: height 0.347 m; diameter of mouth: width 0.109 m; outer diameter: width 0.406 m
- Department
- Korean Art
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Art Genome Taxonomy
10 tags
Subject Matter
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Hybrids and Imaginary Creatures Both · 99%
The visible decoration depicts a fantastic dragon with enlarged eyes, a scaled body, whiskers, and limbs; the museum identifies the motif as a dragon.
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Mythology and Religion Both · 86%
The museum describes the dragon as a powerful mythical creature, and the image clearly presents it as a non-natural, legendary being.
Visual Qualities
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Calligraphic Both · 99%
The museum describes the decoration as made with free-flowing calligraphic brushstrokes, which are also clearly visible in the varied, expressive iron-brown lines.
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Curvilinear Forms Visual · 96%
Winding contours dominate the dragon’s body, clouds, scales, limbs, and surrounding decorative marks.
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Patterns Visual · 93%
Repeated scale-like forms, cloud curls, and clustered motifs create patterned decoration across the rounded body.
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Asymmetrical Visual · 88%
The decoration is distributed unevenly across the visible surface rather than arranged as a mirror-symmetrical composition.
Time Periods
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17th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The stated date range is 1675–1699, within the seventeenth century.
Geographic Regions
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Asian Art Metadata · 98%
The place of origin is Korea, and the museum classifies the work within Korean Art, represented in the catalog by the broader Asian Art region.
Materials
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Porcelain Metadata · 99%
The museum records the medium as porcelain with underglaze iron.
Tableware, Vessels, and Objects
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Vessel Metadata · 99%
The object is identified in the title and catalog as a jar, a container with an opening and foot.
Source & rights
Unknown artist. Jar with Dragon and Clouds Design. Cleveland Museum of Art.