Vase with Poet Zhou Dunyi

Vase with Poet Zhou Dunyi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The larger seated figure resting near the banks of a lotus pond is the scholar-official Zhou Dunyi (1017–1073), who wrote an elegant poem about his love for this flower. Representations of poets appear in Chinese ceramics in the fourteenth century and are often identified by references to their writings. A long inscription written on the bottom of this jar dates it to 1587, and indicates that it was commissioned for the use of an auxiliary palace in the southwest.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vase with Poet Zhou DunyiVase with Poet Zhou DunyiVase with Poet Zhou DunyiVase with Poet Zhou DunyiVase with Poet Zhou Dunyi

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.