Page 103 - Christies Alsdorf Collection Part 1 Sept 24 2020 NYC

VENERATING THE PAST

INSPIRING FUTURE
AND THE

IMPERIAL MONOCHROMES OF THE 18TH CENTURY

ROSEMARY SCOTT
Senior International Academic Consultant

The porcelains made for the three great In the Song dynasty (AD 960-1279) the appreciation
Qing emperors – the Kangxi Emperor (1662-1722), of monochrome wares grew at courts renowned for their
the Yongzheng Emperor (1723-35), and the Qianlong refined sophistication, and amongst the literati. Both
Emperor (1736-95) – are internationally admired the Northern Song (AD 960-1127) and the Southern
for their beauty and technical excellence. In addition Song (1127-1279) periods saw the development of new
to these qualities, however, connoisseurs admire the kinds of subtly coloured monochrome ceramics, which
reverence for the past and the encouragement of were highly esteemed by succeeding generations. Green
innovation that inspired some of the finest porcelains celadons, white ceramics such as Ding and Qingbai
of this period. These aspects of high Qing imperial ware, the blue-toned Ru and Jun wares, black-glazed
porcelain are especially evident in monochrome ceramics, and the crackle-glazed Guan and Ge wares of
wares, including some of the fine examples in the the southern kilns, were to prove the most enduringly
Alsdorf Collection. admired and influential. The Ding and Qingbai wares
owed their colour to the purity – lack of colouring
Monochrome ceramics first enjoyed real prestige in trace elements - of the materials from which they were
China during a period in which the technology and made. The celadons, and also the black wares owed
status of ceramics reached new heights. This was in their glaze colours to differing amounts of iron in the
the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907), when ceramics were glaze constituents and the atmosphere in which they
first truly appreciated by Chinese connoisseurs for their were fired, while Jun wares obtained their opalescent
beauty as works of art. At that time elegant single- blue colour partly from small amounts of reduced iron
coloured wares, with white glazes or grey-green celadon and partly from the optical effects of the glaze structure
glazes, were the subject of imperial approbation and (research on this topic is discussed by Nigel Wood in
literary plaudits. Tang celadon-glazed stonewares from Chinese Glazes – Their Origins, Chemistry and Recreation,
the Yue kilns of Zhejiang province were the recipients London, 1999, pp. 118-24).
of special praise. The Tang-dynasty writer Lu Yu (AD
733-804) in the Cha Jing (Tea Classic) particularly Although some new monochrome glaze colours
recommended Yue celadon wares as the best vessels from appeared on porcelains during the Yuan dynasty
which to drink fine teas. These Tang celadon-glazed (1279-1368), under the auspices of the Mongol rulers,
ceramics established the appreciation of such subtle including copper red and cobalt blue, the status of
celadon glazes, which are the ancestors of the refined monochrome ceramics was greatly enhanced in the
grey-green and pale blue-green glazes of the Song late fourteenth century, when the first Ming-dynasty
dynasty, which, in turn, inspired both Ming-dynasty and emperor, Hongwu (1368-98), brought monochrome
Qing-dynasty imperial porcelain vessels such as those in ceramics into a new and important area of court life
the Alsdorf Collection. – they were used for state ritual. The vessels used on