Page 361 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

decorated with low-firing, lead-fluxed glazes the sheer quantity of material ordered by the ing granitic rock (petuntse); potting; molding;
(usually called "enamels") in yellow, red, green, court each year. Production was under the con- making saggars; glazing; providing designs;
turquoise, purple, or black, and refired at about trol of the Gong Bu, the Board of Public Works, producing decoration; stacking; firing; and ex-
850° c to fuse these glazes. The former are and wares were made for the Imperial Palace amining. Their whole end product had to please
referred to as "underglaze-decorated," the latter and for the Grand Secretariat of the govern- a clientele even more demanding than a modern
as "overglaze enamels." In Chinese critical liter- ment. Though figures for the first two reigns market. Ming porcelains not only succeeded in
ature and in most Western literature pure white of active production, Yongle and Xuande, are pleasing native patrons, they also achieved aes-
ware is considered to have reached its apogee in unavailable, the figures for 1554, in the reign thetic and technological standards far beyond
the Yongle reign (1403-1424), underglaze blue- of Jiajing, show 26,350 bowls with dragons in those of any ceramics in the world to date.
and-white in the Xuande reign (1425-1435); underglaze blue, 50,500 plates with dragons, It should be noted that the late fifteenth and
potters of the Chenghua reign (1464-1487) pro- 6,900 cups with floral designs, 680 large fish early sixteenth centuries, encompassing the
duced masterful blue-and-white (cat. 321, 322) bowls, 9,000 white tea bowls, 10,200 bowls with Chenghua, Hongzhi, and Zhengde reigns, rep-
as well as enameled wares, especially the exqui- designs inside and out of fish, dragons, phoenix, resent a revival, a renaissance of the qualities
site dou cai ("fighting yet fitted colors") wares, and water plants, 19,800 tea bowls with the embodied in the Yongle and Xuande wares of
whose decoration combined underglaze blue same decoration, 600 libation cups with design the early part of the century. The thirty years
with overglaze enamels in soft tones (cat. 323- of dragons and waves in underglaze blue, and between the two is designated a "ceramic inter-
325). The Hongzhi reign (1487-1505) witnessed 600 white wine ewers. That earlier Ming courts regnum," a time to which many dubious, uncer-
a decline in variety and quality (cat. 327); and also required such staggering production is con- tain, heterodox, or just plain troubling
the following Zhengde reign (1505-1521) is firmed by a general order of 1433 (Xuande porcelains are attributed. Questions of date are
remarkable for its so-called Muhammadan reign-era) for 443,500 pieces based on designs further complicated by the fact that the Jingde-
wares (cat. 328) —blue-and-white porcelains submitted by the Board of Public Works. zhen industry, even the imperial potters,
rather stiffly and symmetrically decorated and Shapes were standardized within the neces- designers, and decorators, also produced porce-
often bearing inscriptions in Arabic or Persian, sarily flexible specifications for vessels hand- lain for non-Imperial clients. Such works must
presumably made for the predominantly thrown and/or molded and then wood-fired. have differed from the wares produced for the
Muslim officials and attendants surrounding the According to Brankston, eleven shapes were court and its epigones, and would consequently
Zhengde emperor. most common during the Yongle period: (a) not fit easily into the neat categories set up by
In the Jingdezhen area of Jiangxi Province, lotus-form bowl (lian zi) in two sizes, (b) "press later scholars and connoisseurs. Still, there was
which supplied the vast demands of the Imperial hand cup" (ya shou bei) in two sizes, (c) plain a lull, followed by a half-century's glorious
Household, non-Imperial wares were also pro- bowl, (d) teapot, (e) three types of stem cup (ba revival, whose products equaled and sometimes
duced, as they were at various old kiln sites in bei), (f) monk's-cap jug (seng mao hu), (g) vase surpassed their predecessors.
north and south China. For ordinary use slip- (mei-ping), (h) small wine pot, (i) gourd bottle
decorated stonewares were dominant in the (hu lu ping), (j) medium dish, (k) small saucer.
north, celadons in the south. Some complex In the Xuande reign (a), (b), (c), (e), (g), (h), and Lacquer
porcelains made in imitation of cloisonne- (i) were continued with variations, and the fol- Lacquer fragments have been found in late
enameled brass vessels —often massive pieces lowing were added: steep-sided bowl with ribs Shang tombs at Anyang, and large-scale and
dominated by large areas of aubergine, yellow, on the lower part of the exterior, clear-water technically advanced production is known from
and turquoise overglaze enamels —display bowl (jing shui wan), beaker, jar with foliate late Zhou (4th~3rd centuries B.C.) on. Quality
astonishing technical mastery (cat. 330). cover, large ewer, leys jar (zha dou), bottle vase, and quantity first peaked in the Han dynasty.
In their time, white and decorated porcelains flask with cusped handles. Chenghua afforded Even for this early date historical texts and
were as eagerly coveted by the outside world as less variety: zha dou, truncated jar (cat. 323), inscriptions on lacquer objects permit reason-
porcelaneous celadons had been. The Topkapi bowl, deep dish, three types of small wine cup ably certain conclusions about the nature of the
Saray in Istanbul lists increasing quantities of (cat. 324, 325), varied stem cups. The Hongzhi lacquer industry, conclusions that can be applied
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white porcelain in inventories of 1495, 5° / reign continued the zha dou, bowl, deep dish, to even later production. Although the lacquer
1505, and after, and white wares have been and a few larger stem cups. Repeating shapes industry resembled the ceramic industry in its
found at Samarra, Iraq, and at Nishapur and the was economical and helped maintain quality well-calculated division of labor, the last stages
Ardebil Shrine in Iran. Blue-and-white deco- control. But modest variations in shape and in of the manufacturing processes were dissimilar,
rated wares reached India, the Middle East, and treatment of the foot rim are recognized means with lacquer requiring a highly specialized
Egypt beginning in the fourteenth century and of distinguishing the wares of different reigns, artist-craftsman. From Han times on we find
resumed in even greater quantity at the end of perhaps even of different kiln supervisors, and many lacquers signed by their makers; even
the fifteenth century, following the interrup- help in constructing development sequences. more significant, there are texts criticizing the
tion in commerce caused by the Timurid inva- These records and the substantial number of "luxuriousness" of lacquer wares and the vast
sions. Not till the early sixteenth century (when remaining examples of Ming porcelain (no wealth expended on production.
the Portuguese sent a royal embassy to Beijing) census has been taken, but the catalogues of The basic process begins with the extraction
did Chinese porcelain begin to reach Europe; museums, Eastern and Western, exhibit con- of sap from the lac tree (Rhus vernicifera; qi
the silver or gilded mounts with which it was siderable quantities) indicate that the methods shu), largely grown throughout China south of
often fitted there are a measure of its value in of porcelain production approximated what the the Yangzi River. The juice is mildly toxic, and
European eyes. West, much later, came to call "division of the work would today be called hazardous.
The organization of the kilns, especially the labor." The process required close coordination Wood, cloth, metal, and ceramic could be used
imperial ones, at Jingdezhen was necessarily and supervision of a variety of tasks —trans- as grounds for the application of lacquer, which
complex and bureaucratic in order to deal with porting kaolin; crushing, levigating, and refin- is not remarkable for its tensile strength but

360 CIRCA 1492