The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Bowl with Fish and Waves in Relief

Bowl with Fish and Waves in Relief

1100s-1200s
Overall: 6.3 cm (2 1/2 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This tea bowl was part of the gifts donated by John L. Severance (1863–1936). He and his father Louis H. Severance (1838–1913) collected Korean ceramics of the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392) from a number of pioneering medical missionaries as a way to foster their activities in Korea, and later donated them to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Description

As early as the seventh century, the practice of drinking tea and wine became an important part of elite leisure culture in Korea. A wide bowl like this example was especially suitable for drinking powdered tea shaved from a compressed tea cake, the most commonly enjoyed type during the Goryeo period. The image of fish swimming waves expressed in low relief on the inner wall of this tea bowl may have made the moment of drinking tea much enjoyable.
  • Jang, Nam-won. "The Tea and Celadons during the Goryeo Dynasty : Considering the Celadon Tea Utensils [고려시대 茶文化와 靑瓷]." Misulsa nondan (2007): 129-162. www.dbpia.co.kr
    Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918-1392. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2003.
    Goryeo: The Glory of Korea [대고려, 그 찬란한 도전]. Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2018.
    Sparkles of Jade: Goryeo Celadon [高麗青磁 : ヒスイのきらめき]. Ōsaka: Ōsaka: Shiritsu Tōyō Tōji Bijutsukan, 2018.
  • {{cite web|title=Bowl with Fish and Waves in Relief|url=false|author=|year=1100s-1200s|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1918.445