Page 392 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

The Connoisseur

zenith of its power, sculpture. Speaking

Chinese armies of a splendid ex-
ample in the British
penetrating i n t c

Central India, Chi- '-a^ -^ -Museum, 50 inches
nese junks into the
high, Mr. Hobson
Persian Gulf, and
states that "to fire

the northern bound- such a mass of ma-

aries of the empire terial without subsi-

extended into Turki- dence or cracking

stan. As during the would tax the capa-

Han dynasty, inter- bilities of the best

course with foreign modern pottery,

states was renewed, while the skill dis-

and "a host of for- played in the model-

eign influences must gn1 i is probably
have penetrated into unequalled in any

the middle kingdom, known example of
including those of
ceramic sculpture."

the Indian, Persian, The glazes used by

and Byzantine arts." the T'ang potters

T'ang pieces are were numerous, and

only beginning to the shapes of their
pieces and the styles
find their way to

Europe, and afford of ornamentation

surprising evidences tejr"" "WT*"'""^""""." " '*~''"^*^""*^,'^^^BBIpH used remarkable for

of the maturity which their variety. Some

ceramic art attained recently discovered

during the period of pieces would even

the dynasty. The seem to prove that

n\ajority of the speci- painting with a brush

al ens which ha^p was practised by

come to light are them.

mortuary pieces, and The five brief dy-

until more tombs are nasties which fill the

exhumed and further sixty -four years' in-
pieces surrendered
terval between the
by Chinese col- T'ang period and
the Sung period
lectors, it will be

impossible to form (960-1279 A.D. are
I

a final e stimate known by few dis-

of T'ang pottery. tinctive wares of im-

Among its especial portance. The last-

characteristics are named period was

the large proportion the golden age of

of figure pieces it Chinese arts, and

includes. S o me of MODEL OF A " FOWI.INi; TOWER " HAN POTTERY, WITH IRIDESCENT the Sung wares have

these are clearly GREEN GI.AZE HEIGHT, ^O IN (FREER collection) beena h\- a \ s r e-
inspired by Graeco-
garded by Chinese

Roman influence, and rival their e.xemplars in force and connoisseurs as reaching the high-water-mar. of ceramic

spirit. Horses are taken for subjects with great fre- excellence. So highly are they prized that co oaratively

_.4Uipn.rv. ,ri]"i"i .^.-». n. i, l°!l°d w^th ernat boldness and few specimens of them are permitted to ' .°ave_^the^_
character. Perhap; the sculpturesque power of the
T'ang craftsmen is 1 ^st shown, however, in the large country, and Europeans, for the present, ha\ e large
Buddhist figures, of> vhich a few rare examples have
|

to be content with a second-hand knowledge of theni.

"The Sung wares are true children of the potter's co-aft,]

been brought to Ef.-ofpe. These, while embodying made as they are by the simplest processes, and in tlie'

the Buddhist idea '.4 a. bstraction and aloofness, are main decorated only by genuine potter methods." TheirJ
\\

realised with wondi rfal literalness, and offer a com- most important feature "lies in their glaze, which liolds|
la qiialite ))iaitrcssc dc la ce'rana'qiee" as an enthusiastic
bination of monum -ntal repose with the expression of

mental energy that .-;, iii its way quite unrivalled. These French writer has expressed it. Its richness, thickness,

figures are even n.oro remarkable as pottery than as lustre, translucencv, and its colour and crackle are the

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