Page 70 - Korean Buncheong Ceramics, Samsung Museum Collection (great book)

hand-carved and filled with white slip, stamps were used to create repeating patterns that cover
a larger area of the vessel’s surface, often expanding over the entire pot (see cat. 29). The color
scheme is no longer made up of white (and sometimes black) elements scattered beneath the
green glaze but shifts to a much greater emphasis on the color white. Although stylistic variations
existed among kilns and regions, two of the most prevalent decorative motifs that appear on
stamped buncheong vessels, sometimes in combination, are chrysanthemums (see cat. 44) and
rows of dots (see cat. 29). With small, repeating stamped patterns spread over the entire vessel,
the sheer fact of coverage, more than the character of individual motifs, commands attention.
Certain striking examples display both inlaid and stamped decorations, with the two principal
designs segregated yet harmonious (see cat. 12).

IncISed and SgraffIto deSIgnS
The liberal use of white slip plays out in attractive and dramatic ways with designs that are incised,
carved, or both. A buncheong potter might paint nearly the entire surface of a vessel with white
slip, then incise designs, sometimes carving away the area around select motifs in the so-called
sgraffito technique. Incised designs range from flowers — including the peony — to various land and
water creatures; from the representational to the abstract; from the ordinary to the unusual, imaginary,
or fantastic. An example of a curious and atypical motif is a four-legged animal, probably a dog
(cat. 30b). The expressive qualities and the
economy of line capture the essential char-
acteristics of this animal (though admittedly
its body is rather awkwardly drawn). In its
linearity and in the sophisticated apparent
simplicity of the rendering, there is some-
thing Picassoesque about the beast. The
opposite side of the fifteenth-century
bottle is decorated with a futuristic-looking
swirling pattern that seems to take the
stylistic emphasis on linearity and abstrac-
tion to the next level (cat. 30a).
Incised lines are often combined
with the more dramatic sgraffito technique;
these two decorative modes are typical of
products from the kilns of Jeolla Province,
in southwest Korea (see Jeon Seung-chang’s

Catalogue 30a

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