bowl
Description: bowl, stoneware, blue and white, with snake headed cranes flying over water near pine trees. In screen paintings, The Symbols of Long Life (shipjangsaeng) are common. It is difficult to put all ten symbols onto a piece of porcelain and usually only two or three symbols appeared. The ten symbols were the sun, clouds, water rocks, deer, cranes, tortoises, pines, bamboo and Scared Fungus. Sun, clouds, water and rocks appear to last forever so are used to indicate long life. Deer and crane were messengers of the Immortals and flew to the Island of the Immortals (pong nae) in the Eastern Sea. Female cranes, like deer, are very protective of their young, so they set a good example for human mothers.
Collection: HUMAN HISTORYAccession Number: 1976.47Display Room: Arts of Asia GalleryDescription: bowl, stoneware, blue and white, with snake headed cranes flying over water near pine trees. In screen paintings, The Symbols of Long Life (shipjangsaeng) are common. It is…