Korea

The reconstructed scholar’s study gives the Korea gallery the scale of a room within a room. Called a sarangbang, it was made by contemporary Korean craftspeople in 2000. It offers an architectural setting alongside the smaller objects in the cases. The gallery follows Korean material from about AD 300 to the present. Ceramics, lacquer, textiles, metalwork and painting bring different forms of skill into view. A moon jar and celadon ceramics are among the highlights, with some material lent by Korean institutions. Allow a ceramic surface to hold your attention before looking at its decoration. Shape, glaze and the way a vessel meets its base can matter as much as a painted design. Then return to the study to consider how objects of different kinds might relate to a furnished space.