Dish with landscape

The immortal landscape on this dish is drawn in a flat perspective and built up with mountains, a pagoda, pine trees, cranes, and a bridge over an ocean in the center of the base. The interior edge is decorated with six pairs of cranes, one crane jumping into the water and the other hiding in the reeds. Repeated in triplicate on the outside, a squirrel-and-grapes theme is bordered with floral sprays around the lip and floral panels encircling the base. The underglaze-blue has a grayish tone. The unglazed base is unusual. With a motif that indicates liberation from traditional pictorial subjects, and a densely arranged spatial ground, this work demonstrates a late mode of Ming artistry.