Page 92 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

of the court, the aristocracy, religious groups, and
wealthy merchants. Lacquers have also served as
valued objects of trade. And yet lacquer, for all its
lustrousness and durability, has never been translated
into symbol, a curious omission in China, where so
many other materials have acquired symbolic
connotations.
In the writings of the scholar-gentry, many forms
of lacquer were associated with excessive wealth
and extravagance, with the women's quarters, and
with the imperial court; therefore only select types
of the medium are found in objects made for the
scholar 1 The primary exception is furniture.
class.
For most furniture, a single coat or a few thin coats
were applied to protect a softwood core. Only the
most expensive pieces of lacquered furniture, such
as the examples from the imperial workshops, were
covered with multiple layers and decorated in
techniques discussed below.- This attitude has also
affected the study of the material, which, until
recent decades, has been viewed primarily as a
minor decorative art. For certain periods in
Chinese history, however, and for the social classes
who patronized it, lacquer was a medium of great
value and significance.
Lacquer production is a long process, beginning
with gathering the sap of the lacquer tree by
making small slits in the bark and collecting the
secretion. The raw sap is a thick, creamy substance
filled with impurities; initial steps in preparing the
material include filtering through cloth of varying
fineness until the desired purity is achieved and
allowing excess water to evaporate. Once purified,
the clear, viscous, amber liquid is ready to be
applied to a core. These cores have traditionally
been wood or fabric, but sometimes are made from
other materials such as leather, ceramic, or even
bronze. 3
Raw lacquer contains very high concentrations of
urushiol. 4 Under the right conditions, including
high humidity and temperatures between 60 and 85
degrees Fahrenheit, urushiol undergoes a chemical
change and forms a natural polymer having many
of the properties of modern plastics: it is
impervious to water and to many chemicals, and
stable throughout a range of temperatures;
depending on the material used for the core, the
lacquered object can also be extremely lightweight.
In its raw state urushiol is very caustic, therefore
only a limited number of stable pigments can be
used to color it. The most common colors for
lacquer are red, black, brown, and yellow. Certain of
these colors, such as red, had their own significance
in Chinese culture, and considerable effort was
expended in mining and refining them.
SO FINE A LUSTER: CHINESE LACQUERWARES
Cinnabar, the pigment used to color red lacquer, is
a crystalline form of mercuric sulfide. Deposits of
this mineral are found in many parts of China, and
its ubiquity along with its stability makes it an ideal
pigment for use in lacquer. Red was also an
auspicious color for the Chinese, and cinnabar was
sprinkled in tombs as early as the Neolithic period
(ca. 7000—ca. 2000 bce). Cinnabar was also thought
to have magical powers and was one of the main
ingredients in "elixirs of immortality" concocted
during the Qin and Han dynasties (221 bce—220
Ce). Once suspended in the matrix of the lacquer
polymer, this substance becomes a stable pigment.
During much of the Bronze Age in China cinnabar
red lacquer was applied to the interiors of wood
coffins and vessels, a further indication of its special
significance.
Carbon was the primary pigment for black in early
lacquers; because it is not entirely stable in urushiol,
it often yielded a dull and brownish hue. The desire
for a pure and glossy black surface led later lacquer
artists to employ pickled iron, often mixed with
arsenic. Yellow was accomplished through the use of
orpiment. Brown, in a range of tones, is the natural
color of lacquered wood; other more opaque
browns can be obtained through the addition of
carbon.
To enlarge the available palette, methods were
developed to add pigments to the surface of
lacquer. Among these was suspending pigments in
oils from the tong tree and painting them onto the
lacquered surface. Inlays of sheets of precious
metals, shells, mother-of-pearl, colored stones, glass,
and a broad range of other materials as well as the
suspension of powdered metals in lacquer were also
important decorative techniques.
There are five principal applications for lacquer: as
a protective coating; as a paint to apply two-
dimensional decoration; as an adhesive; as a resin
that, in combination with other mediums, creates a
product of superior strength and durability; and as a
medium for carving. These applications are not
mutually exclusive, and it is common to find two
or more present in any given object.
The earliest use of lacquer must have been as a
protective coating, and this remained one of its
primary functions. Thick and viscous, lacquer is
difficult to paint with. Nevertheless, Chinese
lacquer artisans achieved remarkable results, and
some of the earliest surviving evidence of Chinese
attempts at painting are in this medium.
Use as an adhesive was another early and enduring
application of lacquer. Because it is sticky when
wet, adheres to most materials, and cures to create a
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