Page 124 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain Getty Museum
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GLOSSARY
ARITA often used in combination with iron red, blue, yellow,
A center of ceramic production on the island of Kyosho and aubergine.
in Japan. Very pure porcelain clays were found nearby.
In the mid-sixteenth century many small private kilns FONDEUR
sprang up in Arita and much porcelain for export was
produced there. One who casts metals; the craftsman who casts the
bronze mounts for porcelain.
CELADON
A widely used term to describe high-fired porcellaneous GADROON
wares with blue-green glazes. Silica glazes with iron A short rounded fluting or reeding applied as a decora-
oxide in suspension reduce in wood-fueled kilns to the tive pattern usually along a molding. The fluting is
characteristic blue-green tones. In coal-fueled firing, the sometimes twisted.
glazes oxidize to tones of darker olive. The term proba-
bly derives from the character of the shepherd Celadon, IMARI
who was dressed in green in a play based on the A European term to describe Japanese porcelain made
romance UAstree (1610) by Honore d'Urfe. at Arita, which was exported through the port of Imari
from the seventeenth century onward. The decoration
CISELEUR typically consists of a dark underglaze blue with red
A chaser of metalwork. When a bronze emerged from and gold overglaze enamels, sometimes with touches
the casting process, its surface was rough and had to be of turquoise blue and green enamel.
finished by chasing (hammering with a tool resembling
a small screwdriver with a circular end). By chasing LUTE
various parts of the surface of a bronze with tools of Thinned porcelain clay used to pack a joint; a raised
differing size, great vitality was imparted to the finished ring around a porcelain vessel originally created in two
object. Chased areas were sometimes contrasted with or more parts.
burnished surfaces. Chasing was carried out before the
bronze was gilded. ORMOULU
A contraction of the words bronze dore d'or moulu
CRACKLE (gilt bronze). The bronze was generally gilded by the
A network of irregular cracks in the glaze surface, mercury process in which the gold was ground or pow-
caused by different rates of expansion and contraction dered (moulu) to form an amalgam with the mercury
of the glaze and clay body while the ceramic cools in and attached to the bronze by the application of heat.
the kiln. The effect is achieved by adding steatite to the
glaze. Originally produced by accident, crackle is found POTPOURRI
in Chinese ceramics from the Han dynasty. Later it was A mixture of dried flowers, herbs, and spices treated to
developed deliberately for decorative effect. Ink, char- scent a room; also the vessel holding the mixture.
coal, or vermilion was rubbed onto the surface to
emphasize the cracks. ROULEAU VASE
A tall vase first produced in China from the twelfth
FAMILLE VERTE century. The body is cylindrical with narrow, flat shoul-
French descriptive term introduced by Albert Jacque- ders; the neck is low and wide; and the mouth is flared.
mart in the mid-nineteenth century when the systematic
study of oriental porcelain was first undertaken in SOUFFLE GLAZE
Europe. It bears no relation to Chinese descriptive Glaze applied to the ceramic body by blowing a pow-
terms. The famille vert enamels were developed during dered pigment through a screened tube to achieve a
the reign of the Kangxi emperor (1662-1722). The subtly mottled surface.
color takes its name from a brilliant transparent green
STRAPWORK
A decorative motive of interlacing bands or straps.
It can be either executed in relief or painted on a flat
surface.
in
