Posts Tagged ‘artistic achievement’

Yuan and early Ming
During the Mongol occupation and the early reigns of the Ming Dynasty, momentous changes occurred at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province. The kilns came under imperial patronage, and fine porcelain with underglaze decoration supplanted the glazed stonewares of the Song period as the most desirable form of ceramic. Exported Longquan celadons remained a vital source of revenue for the government.
PORCELAIN
Although porcellaneous wares had been made from the late 6th century, it was at Jingdezhen that porcelain developed to its full potential. The addition of kaolin (china clay) to the batch made it possible to make much larger pieces than before. Shu fu wares, which take their name from the two moulded Chinese characters shit and fu (”Privy Council”) found on their interiors, arc of thickly potted white porcelain with an opaque, greyish-white glaze; these were made during the Yuan period for the Ministry of Military and Civil Affairs.
UNDERGLAZE BLUE-AND-RED DECORATION
The use of underglaze decoration probably dates
from c.1330. Cobalt imported from Persia was applied directly onto the unfired body, which was then glazed and fired. Copper oxide, which fires red, was often used in combination with underglaze blue in the earliest painted wares of Jingdezhen, and by the late 14th century it was used on its own. Copper is much more volatile than cobalt and many of these pieces are flawed, the red being greyish and dull.
In 1368, after the Mongols were finally expelled from China, the Ming Emperor Hongwu (1368-98) imposed a strict trade embargo, and foreign cobalt became very rare. The use of copper oxide therefore became more widespread, and copper monochromes were introduced, reaching their peak in the reign of Xuande (1426-35). The Yongle (1403-24) and Xuande reign periods are also regarded as belonging to the classical era of blue and white, when foreign cobalt was once again in plentiful supply. The blue tended to filter through the glaze, creating an effect known as “heaped and piled”, much imitated during the Qing period.
Longquan
• FORMS abandonment of archaic forms in favour of large platters and forms dictated by the export market
• GLAZE thinner and more olive than on Song wares
• DECORATION very little space left undecorated
Qinghai
• FORMS large pieces made possible by the addition of kaolin to the paste
• DECORATION increasingly ornate, with little space left undecorated; beading and Buddhist figures common
Shu fu
• BODY thickly potted porcelain
• GLAZE opaque, greyish-white and waxy
• DECORATION may have moulded Chinese characters
shu and it scarcely visible under the glaze; moulded floral decoration on the inside and incised decoration on the outside
Blue-and-white wares
• FORMS bottles, bulbous wine jars, and large platters
(many with bracketed rims) for the export market
• GLAZE viscous in the Yuan period and inclined to
the pitted “orange-peel” effect in the early Ming
• BLUE dark speckled blue, known as “heaped and piled”, on some Xuande and Yongle pieces
• DECORATION themes include fish among aquatic plants, flower motifs, grapes, and vine tendrils (specifically for the export market)
• STYLE crowded arrangements in the Yuan, but elegant, harmonious spacing in the Yongle and Xuande periods

Early Chinese Ceramics
By the Shang period (c.1600-c.1050) when stonewares were first produced in China, there was an advanced ceramic technology, with the separate high-fired and low-fired traditions of Chinese ceramics already apparent. The high-fired Yue stonewares produced from the 3rd century AD were the precursors of the great celadons of the Song period and represent a high level of technical and artistic achievement.
EARLY WARES
The earliest known Chinese ceramics are low-fired eathenwares dating from the Neolithic period. Distinct traditions emerged in the Central (c.5000-c.2500 BC) and Western (c.3300-c.1800 BC) Yangshao cultures and the Dawenkou culture (c.5800-c.1500 BC) in the north-east. The distinctive bulbous red Yangshao earthen wares were coil constructed and were sometimes decorated with impressed cord-like patterns or painted with bold black or purple geometric designs, often of spirals and loops enclosing checkered patterns. Dawenkou wares are thin, wheel-thrown pots made of red, grey, or black earthenware, which was burnished.
During the Shang period thick, white, unglazed pots were made of kaolin (china clay), while other fine clays were used to make stonewares, which were then glazed. A, ceramics technology developed, wares became
increasingly sophisticated; the potter’s wheel became more common, and new types of body - such as high-fired stoneware-were introduced. Forms at this time tended to be based On such bronze ritual forms as the ding and the hit. In the Han period a huge variety of wares was made, including models of houses, farms, ponds, and human figures in lead-glazed earthenware, which were all produced as funerary goods to accompany the deceased into the afterlife.
sophisticated desk ornaments, such as water droppers and brush rests in the shapes of frogs, lions, and other animals, as well as burial urns with applied models of buildings, animals, people, or Buddhist deities. Yue
wares also include more functional items, including straight-sided basins. From the second half of the 4th century ewers with characteristic “chicken-head” spouts were produced, and within about 100 years more elegant versions with taller proportions were being made. In general, later Yue wares are more graceful than earlier ones, the glaze becoming progressive less olivey and more jade-like and translucent owing to the use of finer raw materials.
TANG WARES
Some fine white-bodied wares, which led to the production Of true porcelain, were made during the Tang period, and included both glazed and unglazed wares. The glaze on Tang wares is particularly distinctive as it has a bright, glassy appearance. In the low-fired range the most characteristic wares of the period are the sancai (”three colour”) wares, namely earthenware vessels and models made as tomb goods, decorated
with runny lead-fluxed glazes coloured green, chestnut,
amber, cream, and, later, blue. Vessels are typically squat
and rounded, and include jars, vases, and bowls. Decoration was Moulded or painted with spotted designs based on contemporary textile patterns. Figures include tomb guardians (whose faces were often left unglazed and painted with coloured pigments after firing), camels, and horses. Because these wares have been buried for such long periods they are usually relatively undamaged; nevertheless, they can be very reasonably priced.
Principal Chinese dynasties
Shang (c.1600-c.1050 BC) Song (960-1279)
Zhou (c.1050-256 BC) Yuan (1279-1368)
Han (206 BC-AD 220) Ming (1368-1644)
Tang (618-907) Qing 1644-1911
Neolithic wares
• BODY red, grey, or black earthenwareFORMS
• funeral jars, cooking utensils, and ewers
• DECORATION cord-like patterns; bold painted designs
YUE WARES
Grey-bodied stonewares covered with a green-grey glaze were made in the Yue district in northern Zhejiang Province from the 3rd or 4th century AD until the 10th or 11th century, when they Isere superseded by the famous Longquan celadons. Yuc wares are exceptionally fine and were presented as tribute at the Tang court as well as being exported to South-East Asia and the Near East. Early Yue wares include
Yue wares
• BODY stoneware
• FORMS desk ornaments (water droppers, brush rests, etc); “chicken-head” ewers; bowls and jars
• GLAZE green-grey with an olive tinge in early wares
• DI CORATION incised decoration and applied figures
and modelling on desk ornaments and burial urns
Tang sancai wares
• BODY earthenware
• GLAZE lead-fluxed green, amber, brown, cream, blue
• DECORATION Pots re-create woven textile patterns; horses have superbly modelled tack