Page 362 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

extraordinary in its lightness and its ability to Cloisonne from the native Ming and conquering Qing
resist damage or deterioration from liquids. With cloisonne enamel we are on different dynasties. Cloisonne-enameled brass altar ves-
The stages of manufacture can be summarized ground. Columbus would have recognized its sels were much used in Lamaist temples
through the titles of the various expert crafts- European character at once, as did his Chinese throughout China, and smaller versions must
men involved in the process: the primer; the near contemporaries. The earliest Chinese tex- have equipped household shrines.
lacquerer who applied the initial (many) layers tual reference to cloisonne occurred in 1387, in A painting by Du Jin (act. c. 1465-0. 1500),
of lacquer over the priming; the lacquerer who the Ge Gu Yao Lun (Essential Criteria for Judg- Enjoying Antiquities (cat. 293), displays a low
applied the final coat that was to receive the ing Antiques) of Cao Zhao. In the third volume stool with a cloisonne top, and we must assume
decoration; the decorator. This last individual (quari), section fifteen, "On Ancient Porcelain," from extant cloisonnes believably dated to the
might be a painter (for painted lacquer), or a we find this reference to Muslim ware (Da shi]: fifteenth-early sixteenth century that they
carver (carved pieces were called ti hong if exe- were used by both the scholar-official and
cuted entirely in cinnabar red, ti cai if the carv- The base of this ware is copper, and the merchant classes, though the former certainly
ing revealed layers of different colors), or an designs on it are in five colors, made with said little about enameled vessels in their writ-
engraver, who rendered a design in incised lines chemicals and fired. It is similar to the Fo- ings. In their fluidity of design, brightness of
which were then filled with gold or silver dust lang-k'an ([Prankish] enamel ware). I have color, and baroque energy of shape and design
over wet lacquer as the adhesive. Engraved-and- seen pieces such as incense burners, flower cloisonne vessels were at odds with the literati
inlaid lacquers were called qiangjin if gold dust vases, boxes and cups, which are appropriate aesthetics of "blandness," simplicity, and
was used, qiangyin if silver. After being deco- for use [only] in a woman's apartment, and restraint. It is hard to imagine the opulence of
rated, the piece was turned over to the polisher, would be quite out of place in a scholar's cloisonne in juxtaposition with Shen Zhou's
then finally to the "responsible person/or studio. Night Vigil (cat. 313). It is certainly no coinci-
supervisor. To this list should be added the It is also known as Ware from the Devil's dence that many, perhaps even a majority of
designer, for many of the later lacquers, espe- country. [Gui Guo Yao]. extant Chinese cloisonnes of Ming date had
cially those of the Ming dynasty, received (David 1971,143.) European or Tibetan owners. Only during the
elaborate pictorial decoration requiring knowl- Qing dynasty, with its "foreign" Manchu
edge of history and the use of long inscriptions Aside from the Chinese scholar's disdain for dynasty and ruling class, were many enameled
(cat. 335). women, Westerners, and all things gaudy or brass and bronze vessels made for use within
From the late seventeenth to the mid- brightly colored, this passage reveals the China. Any visitor to Beijing will remember the
eighteenth century, Chinese and Japanese Chinese awareness of cloisonne and its Western many large and elaborate enamels, answering to
lacquerwork was fashionable in the West, par- origins as early as the late fourteenth century. the Manchu's Mongol and Tibetan tastes, in the
ticularly screens of lacquer on wood, which The technique of enameling was known in both Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the
were sometimes used intact but more often cut China and Japan even earlier, at least by the various halls and temples.
up and made into cabinets and paneling by eighth century, but it was little used, perhaps
French, German, English, and Dutch ebenistes. because it was too colorful not to seem "vulgar."
The material itself was accurately described by But the Mongol Yuan dynasty brought Mongol Furniture
Engelbert Kaempfer in the late seventeenth taste to imperial patronage and numerous Tibe- Chinese furniture ranges from rustically simple
century, and in 1738 by J.B. du Halde, who tan artists to the imperial workshops, leaving a pieces in bamboo and softwoods, made for farm-
tried, not altogether successfully, to banish the strong influence on succeeding Ming tastes in ers and townspeople, to the sophisticatedly
misconception that lacquer was a man-made porcelain and its related art, enameling on simple works in exotic hardwoods made for
substance. metal. scholars, officials, and other gentry, as well as
Cloisonne technique and style apparently the often rich and complex ceremonial furniture
This varnish which gives so fine a lustre to originated in the preclassical and classical characteristic of the Imperial court and the
their works, and makes them so esteem'd in Mediterranean world, and was well known in numerous governmental agencies.
Europe, is neither a composition, nor so great Europe from the fifth or sixth century through Before the Sui and Tang dynasties the
a secret as some have imagin'd; to undeceive the whole of the Middle Ages. Byzantium had a Chinese, as the Japanese have continued to do,
whom, it will be sufficient to give an account strong enameling tradition in the tenth and lived on the floor or on low raised platforms
of where the Chinese get it, and afterwards eleventh centuries, which passed into the Is- (kang) with some heating built in. Early picto-
how they use it.
lamic world. Seljuk Muslim rulers of northern rial reliefs and paintings of the Han (206 B.C.-
The varnish, called Tsi, is a reddish gum, Mesopotamia and Persia enjoyed fine A.D. 220) and Six Dynasties (221-589) periods
distilled from certain trees, by means of inci- enamelwares, both champleve and cloisonne, as show mats, sometimes elaborate ones; low
sions made in the bark... these trees are early as the first half of the twelfth century. tables for writing, eating, or toilet articles;
found in the Provinces of Kyang-si and The Mongols conquered Yunnan, in far south- framed screens; and, rarely, a stool. Although
Si-chwen. west China, in 1253, appointing a Muslim gov- the chair (hu chuang, "barbarian couch,"
(Feddersen 1961,184) ernor there from 1274, and Yunnan supplied according to Berthold Laufer) may have been
enamel craftsmen to the Mongol court in Bei- introduced as early as the second century A.D.,
The "Mysterious East" of Western imaginings jing. Unlike so many of the applied arts, the it was not at all common until the tenth cen-
was too strong, and the fiction of a man-made technique of enameling moved from West tury, when Gu Hongzhong painted his famous
coating persisted into the nineteenth century. to East. handscroll, The Night Revels of Han Xizai,
Even today the remarkable applied arts of China Tibetan (Lamaist) Buddhism and its distinc- known to us today through an excellent version
continue to arouse popular awe at Chinese tive art styles continued, after the expulsion of executed in the Song dynasty and now in the
"workmanship." the Mongols, to receive strong imperial support Palace Museum, Beijing. The scroll shows a full

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