Door frame tile with elephant from the "Porcelain Pagoda"

Door frame tile with elephant from the "Porcelain Pagoda"

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

To commemorate his parents, the Yongle emperor commissioned the construction of the Proclaiming Grace Temple (Bao'en si) in Nanjing. The temple's most prominent landmark was its "porcelain pagoda," a nine-story structure some 260 feet in height that was surfaced in colorful glazed ceramic tiles. The pagoda was destroyed in 1856 during the Taiping Rebellion, so that only fragments, including this elephant tile, have survived.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Door frame tile with elephant from the "Porcelain Pagoda"Door frame tile with elephant from the "Porcelain Pagoda"Door frame tile with elephant from the "Porcelain Pagoda"Door frame tile with elephant from the "Porcelain Pagoda"Door frame tile with elephant from the "Porcelain Pagoda"

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.