Vase of Flowers

Between 1609 and 1615, when this panel was painted, the small blue and white jar holding the flowers was still a fairly new thing to own in the Low Countries. It came from the kilns of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, made for export, and Chinese porcelain had reached the northern market in quantity only after Dutch ships seized two Portuguese carracks carrying it in 1602 and 1603. One of those cargoes was auctioned in Amsterdam in 1604 and sold to buyers all over Europe. The flowers had travelled as well. Tulips came west from Ottoman lands within the previous fifty years, and they stand here with roses and irises on a panel 47 centimetres high.