Page 29 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

Among the Widener monochromes is a large group of unblemished, understated, pale blue porcelains
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of the type often called clair de lune in the West. Cobalt oxide was the colorant used in very small amounts in
this high-fired glaze, producing a variety of light tints. The shapes parallel, with small variation, the classic peach-
bloom forms that furnished the scholar's table. Both of these perfectly controlled wares were designed for an elite
class of scholar-connoisseurs, and they represent the epitome of craftsmanship. Because confusion has arisen
over the many names that are used to describe this ware, the chosen designation for this catalogue is "pale blue."
The "powder blue" glaze, differing from the pale blue glaze only in that it is applied by blowing the pig-
ment onto the surface, was developed during the reign of Kangxi after a period of experimentation beginning in
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the early seventeenth-century Ming reign of Tianqi (1621-1627). The cobalt oxide pigment was sprayed onto the
porcelain body through a tube with gauze stretched over one end, and the vessel was then dipped into a trans-
parent glaze and fired, resulting in a mottled effect. 23

IRON
Iron oxide, historically the most frequently used colorant in Chinese glazes, produces a wide variety of colors,
depending on the glaze formulation and firing conditions. The earliest example of iron oxide used as a colorant
is in the form of a red-brownish red slip on Neolithic pottery made five thousand years ago in Luojigu, Zhejiang
Province. The wood-ash glazes developed during the Shang dynasty contained sufficient iron to result in yellow,
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green, or grayish green coloration. An outstanding example of the renowned Chinese yellow glaze appears on
a Qing-dynasty water pot from the Widener collection (1942.9.502). This is a brilliant, luminous, high-fired glaze
on a fine white porcelain whose colorant may be due to an antimoniate of iron. 25
Iron oxide, in reduction, was also used to create a range of other color effects from celadon greens to
rusty brown and black. Over a white or light colored body, reduced iron oxide produces a cool pale green, olive
green, or blue-green color, commonly known as "celadon" green. A high-iron oxide content can produce rich
browns and blacks when the excess iron migrates to the surface during cooling and is oxidized. The mottled red-
dish brown glaze known as "iron rust" is effected when the iron oxide glaze is reduction fired, then quickly cooled.
The variable pale blue-green called "celadon" is probably the most famous glaze and the one with the
longest continuous use. Celadon is almost certainly the most widely used of French terms by which Chinese
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ceramics are described. The word itself, first as a color term and then as a name for ceramics of that color, is
commonly believed to have been derived from the shepherd named Celadon who habitually wore gray-green in
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the French prose romance L'Astree (published 1607-1627) by Honore d'Urfe (1567-1625). Within the relatively
limited range of celadons in the National Gallery collection, this glaze's variety can barely be discerned. It
includes only one pre-Qing example (1972.43.3), an olive green glazed Northern Celadon (Yaozhou) stoneware
bowl. Within the group of Qing porcelains, the vase in the shape of an archaic bronze vessel called a hu
(1972.43.21), with its gray-green glaze, brown slip coating on the foot-ring, and archaistic shape, seems to be made
most clearly in imitation of a Song stoneware model; the others of the Gallery's group of Qing porcelains may
recall earlier wares in the beauty of their sea green glazes, but the fineness of their white porcelain bodies, undis-
guised by any slip, easily betrays their later origins.
Faithful to a celebrated tradition, some eighteenth-century celadon-glazed pieces, especially those made
during the Yongzheng reign, are frank and often very good stylistic copies of Song prototypes. Aside from these
early examples, celadon glaze developed toward its ultimate refinement in the eighteenth century; thin, pale,
evenly controlled, and applied over perfectly white, smooth bodies with the same diversity of shapes found
among peachbloom and pale blue wares. There are celadons in European metal mounts in the National Gallery
collection (1942.9.441-444), but the three small vases without the eighteenth-century additions are enhanced
only with simple underglaze low relief and delicate slip decoration, and convey a fresh charm (1942.9.499-501).

C E R A M I C T E C H N I Q U E S
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