Vase with Elephant Heads and Cloud Designs

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the eighteenth century, the kilns at Jingdezhen began to make porcelains of a different material. Known as huashi, or "slippery stone," this expensive material, often called soft paste, was used to make thin vessels that frequently were decorated with incised or raised designs under glaze. While the reasons for its introduction remain unclear, it is worth noting that soft paste is easily carvable, and its use would have thus been akin to contemporaneous interests in the manipulation of other materials such as ivory and bamboo. The shape of this vase is loosely based on Bronze Age vessels whose handles were shaped like the heads of animals.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art