Text study
2.1 Introduction 2.2 Nature’s Craft 2.3 Pure Blue-and-White Porcelain 2.4 A Subtle and Reserved World
2.5 Shape and Imagery
Introduction
• In English, the country and “porcelain” share the same name—”China”. This proves that Europeans have long known of China’s relationship to porcelain.
• The served style in porcelain which emphasizes internal beauty has been passed down since Song Dynasty.
A Subtle and Resesentative of a reserved style is underglaze red porcelain, one of the two types of porcelain developed to its maturity in Jingdezhen during the Yuan Dynasty. • Difficult to produce, underglaze red is not as popular as blueand-white porcelain, though it displays a high artistic taste.
Pure Blue-and-White Porcelain
Pure and elegant beauty is the goal that porcelain pursues, and this ideal is best explained in the production of blueand-white porcelain.
Introduction
• Around the 1st century, porcelain production first emerged in China. • By the Song Dynasty it had become mature. Song-dynasty porcelain represented the acme (顶 峰) of Chinese porcelain technique.
Nature’s Craft
• The Ge Kiln (located in present-day Longquan, Zhejiang Province) was a typical kiln of the Song Dynasty that produced crackleware.
Nature’s Craft
Nature’s Craft
• crackling: a porcelain terminology • The crackles occurred during kilning due to flawed workmanship, but latter on crackleware become a craze (时尚) in Song Dynasty, and was passed down to this very day.
• Porcelain garnered a good reputation for China for its sophistication and elegance.
• It played an important role in the wave of the European idealization of China during the 17th and18th centuries.
Shape and Imagery
Porcelain is a comprehensive art, and form is as important to a good piece of porcelain as it is to a fine piece of sculpture.
Shape and Imagery
Shape and Imagery
For Ming- and Qing-dynasty porcelain ware, elegance in shape, intriguing use of color, fine texture, and vivid images all set off each other, adding great splendor to the art.
White porcelain • The most famous white porcelain was produced in the Ding Kiln of the Song Dynasty, which exerted a great influence on later white porcelain products.
A Subtle and Reserved World
The design of this precious underglaze red vase is drawn in underglaze red, and at the lower section is a circular design of lotus petals. Palm trees, rocks and groves of bamboo, drawn on the belly of the vase, produce a graceful landscape painting with profound allusions.
A Subtle and Reserved World
Most Chinese porcelain ware embodies the characteristics of Confucian aesthetics. In its pursuit of gentleness and refinement one senses the aesthetic propensities (倾向) of Confucianism; through its implicit and reserved artistic style one discovers the reserved nature of Confucian aesthetics.
• A small white porcelain container produced during the Qing Dynasty’s Daoguang reign (1821-1850) is such a piece in the white series.
Shape and Imagery
• Crakleware today is one of the typical Chinese porcelain styles. • The interest in crackleware lies in its naturally produced and unpredictable patterns.
• Porcelain found its way to Europe in the 15th century, occupying an important position in the exchanges between China and other countries.
Introduction
Unit 16
Porcelain—Calling Card of Chinese Culture
Content
Lead-in
Text study
Exercises
Lead-in
Do you know the five famous kilns (窑) in Song Dynasty? Five famous kilns are the Jun, Ding, Guan, Ge, and Ru.
Introduction
• Chinese porcelain is cherish for its serene color, crystal paste, graceful designs, and ingenious forms. • It can be regarded as the calling card of Chinese culture.
Pure Blue-and-White Porcelain
• Chinese-made blue-and-white porcelain ware emerged long before the founding of the Tang Dynasty. • It was not until the Yuan Dynasty that this type of porcelain came to be produced in quantity, with the attendant masterpieces. • The Ming Dynasty witnessed the maturity of the art, and a large number of valuable pieces were produced in this period.
Pure Blue-and-White Porcelain
• Jingdezhen became the porcelainproducing center in the Yuan Dynasty and the subsequent Ming Dynasty, the imperial kilns were established here. • Blue-and-white porcelain produced here is the most representative of Chinese porcelain.