2-748-090 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Wine Flask with Plum and Bamboo Design, 1600s. This Korean wine flask embodies Lin Bu’s poetic line "Plums’ subtle scent pervades the moonlit dusk": its circular shape alludes to the full moon, and the gray colour unintentionally spread on the flask’s lower part suggests the permeating scent of plum. The other side of the flask features a bamboo design. The plum and bamboo derive from the motif of the Four Gentlemen, which compares four plants to Confucian scholarjunzi, or "gentlemen."