Brush pot with decoration of figures in a landscape

Brush Pot

China

Qing dynasty (1644-1912), Kangxi period (1662-1722)

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Bulbous ewer with flat-topped cover, molded spout, spiral handle with floral design painted in underglaze-iron.
A Korean whiteware most likely used as floral vase (often silk or paper flowers) for aristocrats. The body is covered with a crackled transparent glaze of pronounced blue cast that makes the vase show a lightly celadon blue hue. The vase has a sloping shoulder and an upright circular rim and is resting on a raised ring foot with patch of kiln grit on recessed base. Lightweight, possibly 19th or even 20th century
Standing figure of the Buddha carved from fine-grained dark blue/gray limestone. Simply attired in the outer robe of a monk covering both shoulders. Drapery cascades over shoulders, clinging to the figure beneath, reflecting the Gupta style influence on Chinese Buddhist art. Considerable traces of pigment remain. Comes in two pieces, the Buddha statue and a lotus-form base into which it sits.
Ichikawa Ebizô V here plays the male role dressed in the grey robes of a Buddhist priest with a long green head-covering. It is common for memorial portraits to have some Buddhist content as a blessing for their afterlife. Arashi Koroku V plays a female role, offering up a large yellow tree peony in a blue-and-white vase—this may be a reference to a wish that Ichikawa Ebizô V attains life in the Buddhist pure land of Amitabha in addition to a reference of a play they performed together. Fans purchased portraits of their favorite actors in a wide variety of roles as well as their memorial portraits. Numerous memorial portraits of Ichikawa Ebizô V survive, as well as more than one portrait brushed by this artist, Utagawa Kunisada. The financial gains of both publishers and artists by selling such fan portraits greatly assisted the fluorescence of Japanese prints of many styles and topics.