Page 31 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

palette, the enamels of which were opaque and capable of extraordinarily subtle variations of color and hue. The
famille rose enamel palette is believed to have been introduced into China from Europe by Jesuit priests, and from
the Qianlong reign onward these enamels dominated the decoration of polychrome porcelains.

FAMILLE VERTE PORCELAINS
The finest famille verte porcelains were made at Jingdezhen during the Kangxi reign. The terms famille verte and
famille rose were coined in the nineteenth century by the French collector Albert Jacquemart and refer to porce-
lains decorated with low-fired enamels (lead-silicate glazes combined with metallic oxides) dominated by shades
of green or red, respectively. 30 Porcelains decorated in famille verte enamels are generally known in Chinese as
wucai wares, a name associated today in the West primarily with Ming porcelains.
Porcelains of the famille noire and famille jaune types are properly considered subcategories of famille
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verte, since the same basic colorants are used. The only difference lies in the dominant background colors (black
and yellow, respectively). The full famille verte palette includes three shades of green in addition to yellow,
aubergine, blue, black, red, and occasionally metallic gold. With the exception of the overglaze blue enamel,
which appeared at Jingdezhen in the early Kangxi reign, the basic colors of the famille verte palette were already
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employed by i646. Porcelains of the famille verte type can be further divided into two groups: those with the
enamels painted over a colorless glaze, and those with the enamels applied directly on the fired but unglazed
porcelain body, or biscuit. In the former, a porcelain vessel was glazed and fired at a very high temperature
(1,200-1,400 degrees C.). After it had cooled, enamels were painted on the glaze surface, and the vessel was fired
again at a much lower temperature (700-900 degrees C.) to fix the enamels to the body. In the latter case (enam-
els on the biscuit), the enamels were painted onto the unglazed body after the initial high firing and then fired
again at a lower temperature in an oxidizing atmosphere.
Famille verte porcelains include vessels, figures, and objects for the scholar's desk. Many of the vessels
were initially produced for the domestic Chinese market, although they frequently found their way to Europe in
the eighteenth century. Objects such as the large fish bowl from the Widener collection (1942.9.644) were
designed for use both in aristocratic dwellings and in temples, while many smaller objects had decorative and
functional uses on the scholar's desk. Ceramic figures, human as well as animal, have a long history in China; the
earliest, dating from the late Zhou, Qin (221-207 B.C.), and Han (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) dynasties, were designed as
tomb sculptures, and this tradition continued through the Ming dynasty. The use of tomb sculptures declined in
the Qing dynasty, however, and most Kangxi-period porcelain figures were made for veneration on Buddhist or
Daoist temple altars or for decoration. Examples include Shou Lao, the God of Longevity (1942.9.592), and Li
Tieguai, one of the Eight Immortals (1942.9.597). Those decorated in enamels often have their counterparts in
the well-known Dehua, or blanc de chine, white porcelain figures of Fujian Province (1972.43.26).
Porcelains of the famille verte type do not appear to have begun entering European collections until
about 1700. Although they had been produced at Jingdezhen for several decades prior to this, they did not ini-
tially impinge on the widespread taste in Europe for blue-and-white porcelain. In the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, famille verte porcelains were widely collected by aristocratic and affluent people in Europe, while the
heyday of collecting famille verte in America came in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

FAMILLE JAUNE PORCELAINS
Porcelains of the famille jaune type were decorated with the same enamels as the famille verte group, although
the colors were usually limited to yellow, green, aubergine, and white (actually a colorless enamel). Famille jaune
enamels, like famille noire, were almost always painted on the biscuit, and the principal design is usually set
against a slightly mottled yellow enamel ground. Human and animal figures, on the other hand, often display a

C E R A M I C T E C H N I Q U E S 15