1522-66

Dish with Rock, Peonies, Chrysanthemums, and Fungus

This heavy, square dish is decorated in yellow and red enamel on both the interior and exterior with blossoming peonies and chrysanthemums growing to either side of a craggy pierced rock, from which two lingzhi fungi emerge. Rocks together with lingzhi fungus comprised a well-known mid-sixteenth-century motif that was often depicted with the shou, or longevity, character, conveying the wish for immortality—a preoccupation of the Jiajing emperor, under whose reign this dish was made. The peony and chrysanthemum are flowers often seen in representations of the four seasons, symbolizing spring and fall, respectively. The existence of other square dishes integrating lingzhi and rocks with the Three Friends of Winter (bamboo, plum, and pine) prompts the question whether the function of these dishes might have been related to the seasons.