Page 236 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

m .Us and birds, and pieces for the scholar's desk. In the early Ming
pieces the cloisons are not perfecdy tilled and the surface has a cer-
tain roughness; but the designs are bold, vigorous, and endlessly
varied. Unfortunately, as the technique improved these qualities
were lost, till wc come to the technically perfect yet lifeless and
mechanical enamclware of the time of Ch'ien-lung. Identical
shapes and designs were produced through the nineteenth cen-
tury, while today the reappearance of these same designs bears el-
oquent witness to the archaistic revival of traditional arts under
the People's Republic.
CERAMICS Porcelain collectors are generally agreed that a climax of refine-
ment combined with freedom of drawing was reached in the blue
and white of the Hsiian-te period (1426-1435), to which belong
the earliest pieces bearing genuine reign marks. In addition to
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Co