Page 98 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

court did not patronize the arts in the same fashion
as had the Song. Instead, the wealthy landed gentry,
particularly those in the south, became the primary
patrons of a broad range of artistic activities.
Many of the better-known literati artists became
long-term house guests of these wealthy gentry,
offering paintings in return for hospitality. The
gentry also supported such endeavors as the
immensely popular plays and novels of the time.
Not surprisingly, the larger-than-life heroes and
villains of these works, whether fictional or
semihistorical, were the subject of many of the art
objects commissioned by the wealthy. Some appear
as topics of lacquer decoration.
Several lacquer techniques initiated during the
Song dynasty were fully developed during the Yuan
dynasty. Following Song precedents, the cores of
many Yuan dynasty plates were made in several
sections, out of very thin wood. In Yuan examples,
the pieces that made up the well of the plate were
laid with their grain perpendicular to the grain of
the pieces making up the cavetto and rim. ' 4 This
technique strengthened the very thin, lightweight
core so that it did not check or shrink as easily as
the thicker, single-piece cores of the Warring States decorated porcelains of the period, is drawn from a
period and Han dynasty. These complex cores were
susceptible to warpage, however, a problem found
in many of the large plates of the Yuan dynasty.
Carved lacquer (diaoqi) was one of the more
impressive developments in the medium during the
late Song and on into the Yuan and Ming dynasties.
Although a complex and time-consuming process,
this technique offered a broader range of visual
effects than the molded and applied lacquer
decoration seen in the Buddhist reliquary and sutra
boxes discussed above (cats. 72, 73). By the end of
the Yuan dynasty carving in lacquer had almost
entirely replaced molded and applied decoration.
One of the most complex of the core types
described above, cloaked to a considerable depth by
multiple coats of lacquer, would be employed as the
blank for a piece of carved lacquer. In most cases,
the first several finish coats would be followed by
two or three coats of a contrasting color of lacquer, in the capital or commissioned by the court. Such
which would serve as a depth guide for the carver,
preventing him from carving through the finish
coats into the core itself.
<travagant amount of time and energy was
required before the blank was even ready for
ving. The finest carved lacquers of the Ming and
Jing could have as many as two hundred coats of
lacquer, each requiring a day or more to cure and
to be buffed before another could be applied. 15 The
cost in human terms for carved lacquer must also
have been very high. Breathing the dust created
SO FINE A LUSTER: CHINESE LACQUERWARES
while carving through layers of cinnabar red
(mercuric sulfide) and orpiment (arsenic) must have
devastated the artisans' health. But we know very
little about the personal lives or working conditions
of the artisan class.
Many of the carved lacquers of the Yuan dynasty
are large platters or plates. Many of these, like many
of the Yuan dynasty blue-and-white porcelains,
were too large for traditional Chinese use;
furthermore, deeply carved designs rendered them
less than ideal for any practical purpose. Most of
them must have been meant for display. The large
porcelains were often made for foreign markets, and
this may also have been true for the lacquers.
Flowers-and-birds or overall abstract cloud-like
designs were the usual motifs. In general, these
pieces are dark brown or black, although examples
also exist in red.
Figural scenes are relatively rare on the carved
lacquers of the Yuan dynasty. The covered box
(cat. 74) is a superb example of this type. Even rarer
are dated examples, and this one bears a date
corresponding to 1351. 16 Almost no other dated
Yuan dynasty lacquers have survived. The scene on
this box, like those on many of the underglaze
contemporary novel or play. Patrons of such
lacquers must have included the wealthy gentry, the
same people who would have sponsored the novels
and plays and purchased the porcelains and other
objects decorated with scenes from them. Not only
are the designs different from those on the lacquers
intended for the tea ceremony or for Buddhist uses,
but the color of figural lacquers is almost always
cinnabar red rather than black or brown.
The popularity of deeply carved lacquer continued
in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Beginning with
the reign of the Yongle emperor (1403— 1424), boxes
and other objects in deeply carved cinnabar lacquer
began to be produced under imperial patronage.
The covered box illustrated here (cat. 75)
exemplifies fifteenth-century developments in
carved lacquers either made at imperial workshops
lacquers served both as utilitarian items in the court
and as luxury gifts bestowed by the emperor or his
emissaries on special occasions.
The subject of the scene on this box is similar to
that on the Yuan dynasty box discussed above
(cat. 74). It has a strong narrative content, with a
main figure standing on an open terrace. His
servant stands directly behind him, while another
scholar busies himself in an open building. Pictorial
space on this Ming box is more developed than on
the Yuan dynasty piece: the number of elements has
increased considerably, and their relationships are
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