Page 130 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

production of blue-and-white porcelain from the
Yuan dynasty on.

During the Song dynasty the black-glazed, blue-
splashed stonewares of the Tang developed in two
directions: light blue-glazed wares, sometimes with
purple suffusions, made by the Jun kilns of Henan
Province (fig. 3),' 7 which belong to the wares
acclaimed at court, and black-glazed wares from
kilns all over China, 18 which achieved no such
eminence.

All these wares, which emanated from the traditions
of Tang green-, white-, and black-glazed wares,
embody the Song ideals of highly refined materials,
exquisite workmanship, an unerring sense of
proportion, and a judicious use of subtle decorative
devices that contribute to the overall effect without
compromising the general impression ot simplicity.

The great exception to that aesthetic among Song Fig. 3. Basin. Jin dynasty; 12th c. Bine-glazed stoneware
dynasty ceramics are the wares from the Cizhou
and related kilns of north China (cats. 136-38). with purple suffusions. Jnn kilns, Henan Province, diam.
They followed a different tradition, in which the
32.4 cm. Meiyintang collection.
potters were less concerned with the refinement of
their materials than with producing striking In this respect, Chinese ceramics differ little from
decorations of calligraphic or painterly quality. Chinese painting, and what James Cahill (q.v.) has
Cizhou-type wares, which became particularly stressed about later Chinese painting is equally true
popular during the foreign-ruled fin and Yuan for later Chinese ceramics: the groundbreaking
discoveries, both technical and conceptual, took
periods, can be seen as foreshadowing a new place so remarkably early in China that all later
craftsmen had to battle against a "near-
direction in Chinese ceramics. overpowering weight of the past" to maintain their
originality. Cahill's admiration for the "stratagems"
PORCELAINS SINCE THE YUAN
DYNASTY the painters of the Ming and Qing period devised

For some time the Jingdezhen kilns of Jiangxi "for escaping repetition and stagnation" could
Province had been able to create a clean, white, and equally be extended to the potters of the period,
translucent porcelain. Perhaps the most valuable even though their ways of working were in no way
comparable. In fact, the phases in which Chinese
Aaspect of this material is that it is totally neutral. ceramics had the greatest impact on ceramics
worldwide were yet to come.
pristine ground such as this provides an ideal
surface for painted decoration. The introduction of From the early fourteenth century the most
fine cobalt from the Middle East and experiments important aspect of a ceramic vessel was its
with copper in China suddenly introduced two
striking pigments, a bright blue and a deep red, for Adecoration. most spectacular early example of this
painting with a brush on the dried but still unfired
emphasis is the covered jar (cat. 139) unearthed
and unglazed porcelain body, very much like from a Yuan dynasty hoard at Baoding, Hebei
painting in ink on paper or silk. Sealed with glaze Province: this jar combines painting in underglaze
cobalt blue and underglaze copper red with applied
and fired at high temperatures, the colors are
permanent. With this innovation, the stylistic openwork and pearl beading. A tour de force such
concept of fine ceramics underwent a fundamental
change. as this vessel did not find immediate favor with

The Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) therefore forms Chinese connoisseurs, whose taste was much more

something like a watershed in the history of restrained. Early blue-and-white and related
porcelains were largely exported to the Middle East
Chinese ceramics. The underglaze painting of and Southeast Asia and were used, to a lesser
cobalt and other pigments on porcelain represents
the last great evolutionary step, after which no
further dramatic innovations took place. 19 The
development of Chinese ceramics during the last
six hundred years could therefore be seen as a long
sequence of variations on a single theme.

CERAMICS IN CHINA: MAKING TREASURES FROM EARTH