During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 A.D), art-collecting was an exclusively male pursuit in China, who competed to find the rarest and most valuable pieces they could find. A well-off individual living at the time might have collected pieces – like documents inked with Chinese calligraphy, painted ceramics, and even antique bronze objects – that were, oddly enough, already extremely old by the Ming period. Being first recognized during the Song dynasty (960 – 1279 A.D.), collectors were willing to pay high prices for such goods despite not actually understanding their original function. The question then becomes, what do collectors look for when buying such pieces?
As an expert collector myself (here’s the proof), I’ve recognized that there are several things a Ming period buyer looks for in a piece of art:
- Antiquity – How old is the piece? If it isn’t a relic from the past, then it is worthless because it can be easily replicated. Many pieces from the Song dynasty were expertly made to withstand time with techniques that are no longer used, which makes it all the more priceless.
- Fake/Copy – Does this piece look like a fake or copy? This ties back to the previous condition as many antique pieces were often made with techniques that were no longer used. Because of this, many collectors were able to figure out which pieces were fake and which were not. However, this doesn’t mean they were always right – many were still scammed.
- Creator – Who made it? If it is someone very famous, or very skilled, who is no longer alive, then it becomes extremely rare and sought for. This is especially true when it comes to calligraphy and paintings; collectors appreciated the formal, aesthetic qualities and often tried to create their own interpretations of the pieces with the creator’s perspective in mind.
- Creativity/Meaning – Is it something that means something significant? Do I feel some kind of connection to it? Will it make me cooler than I already am? These are the exact things buyers from the Ming period would have said before making their final decision. They wouldn’t really purchase anything that didn’t make them feel something.
With these conditions in mind, I believe that a collector would choose to purchase and collect something like the ceramic jar with a dragon painted on it shown above, which is currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Painted a “cobalt blue on a porcelain body” with “a powerful dragon undulating through a sky defined by a few sparse clouds”, while it isn’t exactly an antique (having been made during the Ming period) I believe that collectors would find this ceramic jar to be a very important and powerful symbol. In China, dragons symbolize luck, power, and even nobility for those who are worthy of it. As it isn’t a fake/copy either, they would no doubt purchase this to show it off.
Bibliography
Clunas, Craig. Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China. Honolulu: Univ Of Hawai’i Press, 2016.
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