The Gardiner Museum is open seven days a week! Explore our permanent collection, discover special exhibitions, and get hands-on with clay in our studios. We look forward to welcoming you.
Discover an installation of works by American artist Sharif Bey on now in our lobby. Bey's practice is influenced by African and Afro-diasporic aesthetic traditions, as well as ancient Andean ceramics and contemporary popular culture.
Summer will be here before you know it! Don't wait to sign up for the Gardiner's popular summer camps. New this year, all our week-long sessions are full-day multimedia camps, so kids can draw, paint, sculpt, and more.
Every object in our permanent collection can be accessed through our eMuseum portal. Learn about individual collecting areas, like Italian Maiolica or Modern and Contemporary Ceramics, or search the full collection by keyword. You'll be amazed by what you discover!
Help us continue to offer innovative and engaging exhibitions, programs, and community projects in person and online, as well as plan for the future. Please consider making a donation today.
In the thirteenth century, the city of Jingdezhen in Southern China became the main production centre of porcelain and by 1320, its potters further developed the use of cobalt blue for underglaze decoration. Underglaze blue decoration dominated ceramics from the early fourteenth century to the late 1700s. Blue-and-white porcelain conquered markets in South East Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. It has aptly been called the first truly global commodity, inspiring some of the major ceramic traditions around the world.
Blue-and-white porcelain made in Jingdezhen is the main focus of the Gardiner’s collection of Chinese ceramics. It is especially rich in objects made during the late Ming and Qing dynasties and illustrates the broad demand for porcelain through wares made for various markets and users: the imperial household, the scholar and gentry classes, and the export market. Pieces in this collection also demonstrate the breadth of Chinese and export themes and decorative motifs, including Buddhist and Daoist iconography, auspicious symbols, mythical beings, and scenes derived from literary sources, while integrating forms from various cultures.
The collection of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain was established by Robert Murray Bell and Ann Walker Bell; this was the first donation of Asian ceramics to the Gardiner Museum. It has since been expanded through a significant gift from Janice Gross Stein and Susan Gross Solomon in memory of Anne Romoff Gross.
1. Hulu (Double-gourd) Vase (detail), China, Jingdezhen, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), The Anne Gross Collection, G15.7.1
2. Hulu (Double-gourd) Vase (detail), China, Jingdezhen, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), The Anne Gross Collection, G15.7.1
3. Roof Sculpture of Equestrian Figure, China, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Collection of Ann Walker Bell, G10.4.1
4. Figure of a Courtesan (detail), Japan, Arita, c.1680-1700, The Macdonald Collection, G07.18.17