Dish with the Eight Buddhist Symbols

The interior of this work is decorated with a blooming plant on a rock, symmetrically flanked by two smaller plants. Eight lotus flowers correlate to the Eight Buddhist Symbols bordering the side. Around the foot are eight flower branches. A new decorative scheme of building up plants vertically over rocks in the center of the interior of a dish appeared on Ming ceramics. The rigidly formal outline and the heavy washes are characteristic of early underglaze-blue vessels. The grayish blue color suggests that Chinese cobalt was used.