Ming dynasty, 14-17^th centuries

L: 36.8cm, W: 13cm

In the collection of the Palace Museum, a white ceramic statuette of Bodhidharma is distinguished by a broad forehead, long ears, and curly beard. He is standing on the sea, his left foot exposed, and the hem of his gown blowing in the wind. His perceptive eyes are gazing into the distance, while one hand is cupped in the other before his chest, with a dignified air. The lustrous white glaze is no hype.

Made of three thin bronze plates joined together and covered in a thick coat of gold, the shoes are symmetrical with one plate used for the soles and one plate each for the sides. The design on the soles consists of two rows of bead and flame designs running around the edge and the tortoise-shell pattern in the center, and inside part of the tortoise-shell pattern there are eleven lotus-flowers with eight petals each placed at regular intervals.

It is a pharmacist jar, with a wide and vertical cylindrical body on a narrower cylindrical base and featuring a short neck with rounded rim.

The jar is ornamented with floral and geometrical decorations, executed in blue and black colors on white under a green glaze. Many of these kinds of jars were made in Damascus and exported to the Italian republics during the Middle Ages, especially the 8th century.

This sculpted stone was found in a Palmyrean temple located at a distance of 58 km to the north-west of Palmyra. It represents the two pagan deities Al-Lat, Shamash, while the third figure is a worshipper. The goddess Al-Lat is represented in her war dress carrying a spear and a shield, a helmet on her head, and the head of Medusa is on her chest. In the middle, we find the god of sun Shamash carrying a torch in his left hand and raising his right hand in blessing, while his head is surrounded with a halo.

This type of object, called “model”, was deposited in the grave and destined to accompany the dead into the afterlife according to custom which lasted from the end of the Old Kingdom until the Middle Kingdom. The model presented here shows the massive shell of the boat, cut from a single piece of wood, with five sculpted figurines in the same material fixed on. The largest figurine may be representing the deceased, while the four others are responsible for the manoeuvring of the boat.

This small bottle or vase was produced in the Jizhou (吉州) kilns located Ji'an city, Jiangxi Province, China. The Jizhou kilns began developing in the late Tang Dynasty before flourishing in the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, and then declining in the late Yuan Dynasty. The form of this vase resembles a beaker, with a long, slender neck and a low, squat body. The footring is attached separately. The front and back of the vessel are decorated with twin peony designs, one inside a flower-shaped outline, and the other inside a wave design.

This bronze oil lamp was found in tomb B 47 (room 3) in the necropolis of Ballana. The body of the object represents a head of a young man in the round with a pouring hole in the forehead which served to store the oil, and in the place of the neck, the nozzle from where the wick emerged.

The jar was unearthed from Khotan in southwestern Xinjiang, China. It is presumed to have been made in Yotkan, judging from its shape and the patterns on its surface. Jars made in that region usually have a pair of handles, and feature repeated patterns inscribed on the body, or representations of people and beasts such as lions or griffins on the body.

Provenance: Yotkan, Khotan, Xinjiang Uygur, China

Materials: Clay