Page 425 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

glaze ends, or bits of sand or grit adhering to a emperor selected Choson, "Land of the Morning
roughly finished base, do not strike us as flaws or Calm," a name which was formally adopted by
blemishes. Meticulous execution was simply not the Yi dynasts. The Choson state paid respect and
the Korean potter's primary aim, which might obeisance to the Ming rulers in the form of trib-
have been instrumental in preserving Korean ute, presenting vast quantities of gifts and goods
ceramics from the stiffness, coolness, and remote- at least annually. As was customary in the tribute
ness that often accompany technical perfection. relationship, the Chinese reciprocated with pre-
The aesthetic power of Korean wares lies in cious gifts, including porcelain vessels from their
their tactile strength, directness, and sculptural imperial kilns at Jingdezhen.
beauty —qualities that came to glorious fruition During the rule of the Ming dynasty's Yongle
in the fully independent Choson porcelain style emperor (r. 1402-1424) pure white porcelain —
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. some with the subtlest of incised or impressed
M.A.R. decor but much of it immaculately undecorated —
was unquestionably the favored ware, a direct and
immediate reflection of the emperor's personal
taste and preferences. The extraordinary white
2 78 porcelains, masterworks of the Yongle imperial
kilns, included such ewers as would have provided
EWER a model for the present piece, albeit the Korean
potter altered the form slightly by reducing the
15th century
Korean flare of the mouth, shortening the neck, and mod-
white porcelain ifying somewhat the curve of the handle.
height 33 (13) During the reign of Sejong (r. 1419-1450) only
reference: Gompertz 1968, 43-47 white wares appear to have been used in the royal
tinges the white body fabric and the clear, thick household, suggesting unstinting approval of
glaze, which seems suffused with soft light. Horim Museum of Art, Seoul Chinese models. And in fact, in 1466 production
Superb white porcelains were produced during of white wares was restricted to those ordered by
the fifteenth century in Korea as craftsmen and A relatively high foot with thickened rim sup- the court. The purpose, apparently, was to
court patrons responded to China's lead. So ports the pear-shaped body of this ewer. Its brief preserve the supply of raw materials necessary for
attractive were these wares that even the Chinese neck expands slightly to form the mouth opening the fabrication of fine white ware as well as to
emperor, who commanded the choicest wares of into which a domed cover fits. Attached to one ensure the exclusivity of these marvels of the pot-
the finest Chinese potters, sought to acquire side of the ewer, where a hole was cut through the ter's art. M.A.R.
them. In 1425 an emissary from the court of the body, is a strongly curved spout, balanced by the
Xuande emperor, who reigned in China from 1425 high arc of the handle on the opposite side. Two
to 1435, requested that porcelains from the offi- ring-shaped loops, one affixed to the neck above
cial Choson kilns near the royal capital at Seoul be the handle and the other to the lid, would have
provided for presentation to the Son of Heaven. secured a cord or chain that kept the small cover
Although strongly influenced by early Ming attached to the ewer. Body fabric and glaze unite
dynasty porcelains, the Korean potters were not with the shape to produce an effect of purity, soft-
slavish imitators of Chinese white wares. The ness, and consummate grace.
basic shape of the present bowl, for example, is as White wares of great delicacy and refinement
ancient as the potter's art itself, yet it is at the were produced during the Koryo period (918-
same time distinctively Korean. The distin- 1392), albeit in small numbers compared with
guishing difference was produced primarily by contemporaneous celadon production. These
substituting the high-domed lid for the shallower white wares reflect the profound influence of the
one typical of Chinese covered bowls, and the greatly esteemed Song dynasty (960-1278)
effect is at once suave and imperious. Although ceramics produced in north and south China alike.
capacious, wide-mouthed bowls were produced in Astonishing strength and gravity, however, set the
China, a closer model was to hand in eleventh- early Choson porcelains aesthetically apart from
twelfth century Korean metalwork. those earlier wares; on the whole the Choson
Contemporaneous with the white wares are pieces were more sturdily constructed and their
punch'ong bowls of similar proportion, shape, and shapes adhered closely to fifteenth-century
size, but their lids are flattened and sometimes Chinese prototypes.
surmounted by standing rings rather than by fin- Yi Song-gye (1335-1408, r. 1392-1398), a gen-
ials, so that when inverted, the punch'ong lids eral of the Koryo state, overthrew the Koryo
could also serve as receptacles. Punch'ong bowl- rulers and established a new dynasty in 1392. He
and-cover sets thus are clearly functional — one looked to Ming China as the perfect model upon
can easily imagine them being used as ordinary which to structure his own state. So important
tablewares—whereas the more majestic and were the approval and support of China's powerful
formal appearance of the porcelains seems more Hongwu emperor (r. 1368-1398) that Yi Song-gye
suitable for use at court or in religious ritual. requested that exalted being to select from two
Slight imperfections, such as potters' finger- alternatives the name by which the newly formed
marks in the glaze, uneven borders where the Korean kingdom would be known. The Chinese

424 CIRCA 1492