Chinese fashion magazine

Seventeenth-century Chinese porcelains - Current and Coming

The decade of the 1630's marked a turning point in the ancient ceramic tradition of Jingdezhen, China. Imperial imagery was replaced by decoration devoted to the interests of China's educated and wealthy class. Among the themes were the reclusive life, the virtues of the scholar, service to the emperor, and loyalty to a fallen dynasty. An exhibition devoted to these wares is on view at the China Institute Gallery in New York City until August 5. It is entitled Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century: Landscapes, Scholars' Motifs and Narratives. The sixty-five pieces on view encompass a wide variety of forms and decoration.

The new porcelains, which were polychromatic or richly decorated in vivid shades of blue, were a direct outgrowth of economic and social changes occurring in China at the time. As Julia B. Curtis points out in the catalogue to the exhibition, because Spanish traders were a considerable presence in the Philippines, Latin American silver found its way to China, where it fueled an inflationary economy through an increase in trade. The merchant class reaped large profits, spending much of them on works of art and artifacts, which enhanced their social prestige.

The imperial patronage of the porcelain kilns ceased in 1620 with the death of the Wanli emperor, and the manufacturers were forced to look for new patrons, among them the Japanese and such trading establishments as the Dutch East India Company. The Ming imperial authority diminished in the 1630's and a period of nearly constant civil wars ensued. The Manchu warriors destroyed cities and with them thousands of ancient artifacts and works of art. They conquered Beijing in 1644, and Shunzhi became the emperor of the newly established Qing dynasty. The kilns at Jingdezhen were burned about 1674 and it was not until Kang-xi, the second emperor of the Qing dynasty, asserted control over the kilns in the 1680's that output reached earlier levels, although quality suffered.

The exhibitions subtitle refers to the three stylistic changes that occurred in porcelain decoration during the seventeenth century. The depiction of landscape motifs - particularly the mountain - emerged in the 1630's. Since ancient times the mountain has represented to the Chinese the most conspicuous manifestation of qi, "the life force of the universe." The spirits and the gods lived in the mountains, which were worshipped since the eighth century B.C. Mountain settings were also revered as the perfect location for the reclusive life, and in a period marked by turmoil the idea of finding sanctuary amid beautiful scenery was particularly appealing and sometimes necessary.

By the 1640's landscape painting on porcelain was conceived in the round. The addition of verse served as an enhancement to collectors of these wares. Many of the landscapes were derived from woodblock book illustrations, which were introduced by the important school of landscape painters in Anhui. That city was also the home of merchant guilds that were the major shippers of porcelains from Jingdezhen to other regions of China and elsewhere.

A landscape style known as the "Master of the Rocks" was introduced in the 1640's and reached its zenith in the 1660's and 1670's. These landscapes are organized on the diagonal with the mountains outlined in thick brush strokes. Contours are created by lines drawn parallel to the original outline, giving the illusion of depth. By the 1680's, when the kilns had been rebuilt, landscapes were also rendered in a vertical format, recalling hanging scrolls and woodblock prints, and in a horizontal format reminiscent of hand scrolls.

Surviving early seventeenth-century porcelain suggests that the educated classes commissioned it. These wares tended to be decorated in a sparse fashion, as is evident in the brushpot illustrated here. Scholars and scholar-officials were depicted, many of them engaged in academic pursuits. Frequently represented are allusions to the two levels of imperial examinations that were the prerequisites to admission into the civil service, the members of which administered imperial laws and assumed a high position in society. Other porcelains depict the symbols of the scholar. Among them are the carp, which must leap over obstacles when swimming upstream to spawn, just as the scholar must overcome his own obstacles; and the "three friends of winter," symbolized by the prunus, pine, and bamboo. Orchids also appear as symbols of scholarly virtue.

The third new type of decoration consisted of narrative scenes drawn from dramas, histories, and novels. These porcelains were heavily influenced by woodblock illustrations from books that were too expensive for the majority of Chinese to buy. An example is the covered jar illustrated on page 22, which is decorated with a scene from the popular drama Romance of the Western Chamber and depicts its hero, the scholar Zhanggong.

With the fall of the Ming dynasty, much of the Chinese gentry was torn between loyalty to the old government and to the new Qing dynasty. Depictions on porcelains of rulers (who are often painted with elaborate parasols above them) visiting ministers and sages confirm the difficulties individuals faced over changing their allegiance.

The chaste decoration of these seventeenth-century porcelains contrasts markedly with the imperial porcelains that preceded and followed. After the Jingdezhen kilns came under imperial control in 1683, imperial motifs began to reappear. Improvements in kiln design enabled decorators to increase their output as well as to produce more refined wares. These were sought by the members of the court and the newly affluent who profited by the relative peace of the 1680's.

The exhibition's focus on seventeenth-century wares adds much to the understanding of a unique period of ceramic history and its catalogue sheds new light on the evolution of the most commonly used symbols. The exquisite shapes and accomplished decoration make these wares some of the most interesting in the long history of Chinese ceramics.

The catalogue of the exhibition, written by Julia B. Curtis with an essay by Stephen Little, contains 168 pages, 34 color plates, and 50 black-and-white illustrations, It may be obtained for $35 (paper covers) plus $4 shipping and handling from the China Institute Gallery, 125 East 65th Street, New York, New York 10021-7088.