Page 20 - Catalog Of Chinese Applied Art

Shortly after the introduction of blue and white came another importation from the West,

—this time probably from Byzantium itself, in the shape of vessels of copper decorated with

vitrifiable enamels what we now call cloisonne enamel. Cases C and D, in Room I, contain

some choice examples of this art, the specimens ranging in date from the beginning of the 15th
to the beginning of the i8th centuries. There are also in the Exhibition a number of bronzes,
carved jades and other stones, as well as a few panels of embroidery and carpets, from which
one can gather a clear impression of the splendid colour sense of the Chinese artists and crafts-
men of this epoch. Working in vitrifiable enamels on copper soon led the Chinese pottery
painters to attempt the application of similar colours on their porcelains, and we get the later
Ming coloured pieces, often combining bright red and green enamels with underglaze blue
(such as are grouped together in Case R).

The reign of Wan Li, who was practically the contemporary of our Queen Elizabeth and

James I, marks the close artistically of the Ming epoch, though, with their usual conservatism,
the Chinese artists and craftsmen of later reigns frequently based their work on the styles
evolved during this period. At the time when our civil war was taking place the Chinese

empire was also in the throes of a great rebellion, and, after many years of fighting, the Ming
Dynasty came to an end, and was replaced by the Ch'ing Dynasty of Manchu Tartars which,

after occupying the throne for over 250 years, has so recently been expelled from Peking by the

present Repubhc.

The greatest Emperor of this Dynasty was undoubtedly K'ang-Hsi, who reigned from

1662 to 1722, and was thus, roughly, contemporary with Louis XIV in Europe. Under his rule

China once more became a great and settled empire and, as he was a most beneficient and
tolerant patron of learning and of the arts, we again reach a period of splendour in Chinese
craftmanship. The oldest great collection of Chinese porcelain in Europe, that made by
Augustus the Strong, is still to be seen at Dresden and was practically formed during this
period, while in this country until quite recently it was the aim of every collector to obtain
specimens of the porcelains, bronzes, lacquers and enamels of this magnificent period of
Chinese Renaissance. Being nearer to our own times it is natural that this Exhibition should

be richer in fine works of this one reign than of some preceding Dynasties. Among the porce-
lains the cases of black-ground pieces, the blue and white (in Cases O and P) and the examples

of powder-blue (Case Q) bear striking testimony to the taste and skill of the period, while
there are also bronzes, enamels, a wonderful book of drawings (lent by Mr. G. B. Blair) and

many embroideries and carpets which all go to deepen the impression.

Towards the close of this reign other foreign influences were again at work in China and
;

we must always bear in mind how strongly Chinese artistic work throughout the i8th century

was drawn in two directions by influences which at this time came direct from Europe. K'ang-

Hsi, who appears to have been a sovereign with a mind to rule liberally, encouraged the

French Jesuit Missionaries who settled at his Court towards the close of the 17th century and

obtained considerable influence there. They brought in, to some extent, European ideas both

in art and manufacture. The various India Companies, as they were called, from Holland,

France, England and Scandanavia, provided a body of eager traders, who were anxious to pur-

chase the artistic productions of the Chinese but insisted upon having them more in the fashion

that would appeal to the European taste of the i8th century.

Under the reigns of Yung Cheng and Ch'ien Lung, which practically cover the whole of

the i8th century after 1720, we have to recognise three distinct influences : first, the pure

gClhoirnieess ewhspeinritw, edefitnedrm"ianrecdhaitsoticcon" tpirnoudeucintiiotnss own path and even to revive its more ancient
the works of the early Ming and
in the style of

Sung periods so subtly and wonderfully wrought that they often confound even the

expert ; second, examples made for the Chinese, but with strongly marked Western influence

la