Bowl
Caption
Bowl, 12th century. Jun ware, stoneware with purplish blue glaze, 3 1/16 x 7 3/8 in. (7.8 x 18.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, The Peggy N. and Roger G. Gerry Collection, 2004.28.40. Creative Commons-BY
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Title
Bowl
Date
12th century
Dynasty
Song Dynasty
Period
Song Dynasty
Geography
Place made: China
Medium
Jun ware, stoneware with purplish blue glaze
Classification
Dimensions
3 1/16 x 7 3/8 in. (7.8 x 18.7 cm)
Credit Line
The Peggy N. and Roger G. Gerry Collection
Accession Number
2004.28.40
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
Can you tell me about this?
This bowl is an example of Jun ware, which was developed in northern China. It is characterized by it's stoneware body and opalescent blue-toned glaze.The blue tones were constructed using an optical illusion. Cobalt pigments weren't actually used to create the colors, like in other blue ceramics. Rather a combination of silica, alumina, and plant ash was fired to create a glaze made up of tiny glass spheres, which refract blue light in the same way as particles in the sky.Hi! What kind of process is used to make the glaze look like this?
Basically, it has to do with variations in heat and oxygen level in the kiln. The glaze itself is all one color. Let me get some more details for you!So, the glaze used in Jun ware relies on chemical reactions between silica, alumina, and plant ash that take place in the high temperatures of the kiln to produce the mostly blue-green color that you see.Even higher temperatures transform the glaze into the red-purple splotches which were considered desirable. Ceramic artists carefully engineered their kilns to produce varying temperatures to this end.Cool thanks!
Have information?
Have information about an artwork? Contact us at
