Two-handled jar with resting figures

The smooth, glazed surface and the well-proportioned shape are typical features of later two-handled jars. Yet the design scheme, setting the figures in an interior scenery or landscape, was a later development in ceramics. Among Song-Yuan cizhou wares with this type of design, this piece is rare, hence most figures were depicted in paintings. The style of the figures here is artistically consistent with those applied to late Yuan and Ming wares, when figure drawing became a fashionable element in ceramic decoration among wares with both underglaze and overglaze decoration.