Page 479 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

1368) and popular during the Ming and Qing
dynasties. In this piece the lotus blossoms have
been reserved in white under clear glaze, with the
remainder of the design pale blue and yellow
against a dark blue background.
Fa hua wares bear no reign-marks, but the
author believes those with high-fired white porce-
lain bodies to be earlier than those with lower-
fired, less homogeneous bodies. The high- and
low-fired pieces employ the same cloisonne tech-
nique but are differentiated by size and shape.
The presumably early, higher-fired porcelains are
usually of substantial size and occur in shapes
popular for Yuan and early Ming blue-and-
white —the mei-ping vase and the guan jar. The
lower-fired, ostensibly later pieces consist mainly
of small vases and bowls related in shape to other
late Ming and early Qing wares. On these pieces,
because the firing temperature was too low, the
glaze tends to be cracked and crazed, a flaw not
usually found among the high-fired earlier
examples.
The Cleveland mei-ping is one of a moderate Although some evidence exists for enameling on bodies are heavy, the gilding is thick and deep-
number of remarkably similar pieces, all metal in East Asia before the fourteenth century, hued, and the enamel colors, principally red, pink,
characterized by the "early" mei-ping shape, there is little doubt that the Mongol Yuan dynasty yellow and two different blues, are translucent and
a hard white porcelain body flecked with iron (1279-1368), extending from China across rich. The flowers and arabesque are natural and
impurities, and a decorative vocabulary of hanging Central Asia to Byzantium and into Europe, was flowing, echoing the same elements in blue-and-
cloud-collar motifs on the shoulders, a frieze of the conduit through which cloisonne enamels and white porcelain. On the present basin the winged-
lotus on the body, and "rising gadroons" above enameling were introduced into China. The nec- lion handles are particularly fine, heavily gilded
the foot. All these motifs were in common use essary techniques were already known to the and cast separately. The arabesque incised around
between 1350 and 1500. The precise use of these Chinese, having been developed to a very high the rim is also notable. Incidentally, the sugges-
mei-ping is not known, but their decoration and level during the course of China's already three- tion of Brinker and Lutz (New York 1989,102)
color strongly suggest flower vases or perhaps thousand-year-old glazed ceramic tradition. that the cloisonnes imitate fa hua porcelains (see
decorative objects in their own right. Similar Relatively low temperatures were required for cat. 330), reverses the relationship of the two
but not identical shapes may well have been enameling on metal, easily within the reach of wares. Fa hua ceramics do not seem to antedate
wine bottles. Chinese technology. By the Xuande reign-era the Xuande reign-era, nor are there pre-Ming
The rich and bold effect of fa hua designs (1426-1435) reign-marked enameled bronzes precedents for the cloison technique in ceramics.
pleased Western collectors of the late nineteenth were being produced by accomplished means It seems far more likely that the porcelain makers
and early twentieth centuries, and fa hua ware, wedded to a subtle and varied decorative tradition, imitated the metal workers, changing their
rather than (or in addition to) Japanese design, especially that of the now dominant underglaze palette and adapting the cloison relief technique
may well have influenced Art Nouveau and Art blue-and-white porcelains. to porcelains. S.E.L.
Deco ceramics. Thereafter fa hua fell from popu- This pan basin is an unusual shape for so early
lar grace in the West, but recent years have seen a a date. Its peony-scroll (not lotus) arabesque
clear revival of interest in the earlier, more strik- design occurs on numerous blue-and-white bowls
ing shapes. Certainly fa hua colors and designs fit of the Yongle (1403-1425) and Xuande reign-eras.
Western criteria for the decorative arts. They may The pan shape is archaistic: bronze pan originated 332
also reflect the bold and "vulgar" pictorial quali- in the Anyang period (13th century B.C.-1045
ties of Ming court and academic painting of the B.C.) of the Shang dynasty and were respectfully Li DING TRIPOD
fifteenth century. s. E. L . reiterated in bronzes and ceramics of later dynas-
ties, especially from Song (960-1279) times on. second half of the i$th century
Many of the early Ming cloisonnes echo archaic Chinese
bronze shapes: gui basins, gu beakers, and ding gilt bronze with cloisonne enamels
3
331 tripods may well have been used as altar offering diameter at mouth 19.6 (j /*)
New
York
reference:
1989, nos. 31, 32, 34, 35
TWO-HANDLED PAN BASIN vessels, but, being relatively small, seem more
suitable to less formal, more domestic contexts. National Palace Museum, Taipei
second half of i$th century During later Ming large cloisonne vessels were
Chinese common and conspicuous altar furnishings in The li ding, a trilobed container whose bulbous
gilt bronze with cloisonne enamels important Buddhist temples, including imperial lobes narrow to form hollow feet, is one of the
3
diameter 34.9 (ij /4) temples, in the form of beakers for liquid, con- oldest vessel shapes in Chinese history. Ceramic
references: London 1958, 47-49, no. 303, pi. 81; tainers for food offerings, lamps, candle-holders, prototypes exist from at least the third millen-
Feddersen 1961; Garner 1962; Jenyns and Watson and censers. nium B.C., bronze vessels of the type from at least
1980,106, 113; New York 1989, 102, nos. 24, 27 Technically the fifteenth-century works display 1600 B.C., found at the early Shang dynasty site of
Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris a sound and forthright manufacture. The bronze Zhengzhou. Like all ancient bronzes, including
478 CIRCA 1492