Page 24 - Art of the Ming and Qing Dynasty by Johnathan Hay

ceilings, carving in the exposed beams and upper storey balconies, lattice designs in the

courtyard-facing windows at both levels, and painting or carved brickwork above the outside
doorway. The rather baroque carving of the balconies is often reminiscent of furniture
carving, condemned by Suzhou purists.
It is indicative of the changed times that in early seventeenth century Hangzhou a
virtuoso career painter like Lan Ying (1585-1664 or later) should have chosen to specialize in

the landscape genre, adopting at the same time the conventions of art historical art (512). His
paintings were consistently in the style of one early master or another; however, by
transforming these styles into externalized modes of formal construction and brush diplay, he

gave the allusions a very different significance from the one they have in the self-referential
art of a Shen Zhou or a Wen Zhengming. Lan Ying's mature style allies lucid, almost analytic
structures with decorative color effects, a description that could equally well be applied to,
for example, the archaistic bronzes of Hu Wenming, all the more so when they were used as
flower vases.

Caught in the conjunction of the generalization of "scholar's taste" and the dismal
decline of imperial fortunes, the kilns of Jingdezhen took a new direction after the death of
the Wanli emperor in 1620. With the imperial requirement of technical perfection laid aside,

potters were free to experiment, as indeed they had to do to ensure compensating markets.
Ceramics took on an air of freedom and spontaneity, and there was a proliferation of new
forms implying highly differentiated patterns of use. Equally striking is the displacement of
the auspicious imagery of the sixteenth century in favor of genres of decoration derived from
painting and book illustration (514). We now see informal flower and bird compositions,

landscapes in recognizable painting styles of the time, images illustrating inscribed poems,
and identifiable narrative scenes. Such objects, which were much cheaper than those
mentioned earlier, imply an extension of "scholar's taste" downwards into the lower level of

urban culture: restaurants, inns, and ordinary homes. Conversely, the sophistication of the
new decoration probably also contributed to a loosening of taste at a higher level. The
ceramics of the final decades of the Ming and the first decades of the Qing have only recently
come to be appreciated in the West for their extraordinary inventiveness, not only in the
range of decorative genres, but also in their innovative combinations of motifs, colors and

patterns. Yet their historical importance is enormous. It is not too much to say that they made
the later diversity of Qing ceramics possible, while outside China they were powerful
catalysts for European, Middle Eastern, and Japanese potters.

Intellectual Stances. An entirely new configuration of intellectual stances emerged in
the late Ming period. In the face of political disintegration, some sought in art the order that
escaped them in political life. Others rejected abstract concerns in favor of a radical