Jar

The jar is painted with vibrant underglaze cobalt blue depicting the four seasons and stages in the life of a scholar-official. In the first scene, a scholar leaves his home in spring hoping to pass the civil service examinations in the city. In the autumn scene, he successfully returns on a horse, prepared for a career at court. The summer scene shows him as an aged man watching his offspring play along a lake. The winter scene depicts him writing while attendants offer him hot tea and break the ice for fresh water from the pond in the foreground.