The Yuan Dynasty was the first unified dynasty established by ethnic minorities in China's history, and it was also the period with the most extensive territory. The Yuan Dynasty passed down a total of five eleven emperors, which lasted 98 years.
Although the Yuan Dynasty did not exist for a long time, it had a great breakthrough in porcelain firing. Yuan glaze red is one of the most representative varieties of traditional Chinese porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty, which can be called the treasure of Chinese civilization. With its heroic spirit and artistic originality, Yuan Qinghua pushed the blue and white art to the peak and established the prosperity and longevity of the blue and white porcelain in later generations.
The colorant of blue and white is cobalt oxide, which is an underglaze color that is fired at one time at a reducing flame above 1200 ° C. The colorant of the red glaze is copper oxide, which is a glaze color fired at a time at about 800 ° C. Because the temperature of the two colorants is different, it needs to be fired many times, and the difficulty of firing is extremely high, and the product is extremely expensive. Blue and white glazed red porcelain, not only has the characteristics of blue and white "quiet and elegant, calm and stable", but also has the effect of "thick and magnificent, colorful" glaze red, forming an elegant and simple artistic style, which is one of the precious porcelain varieties in China.
The "Yuan Dynasty Blue and White Glaze Carved Strange Stone Flower Picture Lid Jar" exhibited in the Wuying Hall of the Forbidden City is a fine product in the blue and white glaze red. The height of the tank is 41 cm, the diameter is 15.5 cm, and the foot diameter is 18.5 cm. Tank straight mouth, short neck, slippery shoulders, bulging abdomen, circle foot, sand bottom unglazed.
In addition to the previously mentioned blue and white and glazed red processes, the tank has obvious shape process characteristics. It integrates a variety of decorative techniques such as painting, carving, stacking, and pasting, which shows the extremely high skills of the craftsmen of the Yuan Dynasty, and is the standard instrument for the integration of the Yuan porcelain craft and the role of the generation. The lid of the jar is painted with a blue lotus petal pattern, a curly grass pattern, and a back pattern. The near mouth of the jar is painted with a circle of blue and white tangled branches and curly grass patterns; the shoulders are painted with drooping ruyi cloud head patterns, the pattern is painted with blue and white water ripples, and the cloud head pattern is painted with folded branches peony patterns. The abdomen is stacked on all four sides with double diamond-shaped beads to open the light, and the four seasons gardenscape such as carved mountain stones, peonies and chrysanthemums are carved inside the light, and the glaze is red to the mountain stones and flowers, and the blue and white painted flowers and leaves are decorated with relief effects; the lower part of the abdomen is decorated with blue and white folded branches of the lotus, which echoes the cloud head pattern on the shoulders. The near bottom is painted with curly grass patterns and deformed lotus petal patterns, and the lotus petals are painted with an inverted treasure phase pattern.
The jar decoration is simple and substantial, the layers are clear, the painting art is exquisite, the technique is skilled, the title is prominent, the ornamentation is just right, and it has a strong decorative effect. The blue of the blue and the red of the glaze shine together, which can be called the beauty and common beauty, harmonious and perfect.
This tank was excavated in 1965 in the Yuan Dynasty cellar of Baoding City, Hebei Province, and there was a pair at the time of excavation, and the other was collected in the Hebei Provincial Museum. According to statistics, there are only four similar jars in the world, one in the Guimet Museum in France, and the other in the hands of the Jewish family collector Eskenazzi.
I looked around the jar many times and was interested in the lion crouching at the top of the lid. Mainly because I couldn't see its might, but there was a hint of melancholy hanging on my face, perhaps caused by not being able to find a companion buried in the ground together. If you have a chance to visit the Hebei Museum, be sure to see if the lion's expression is the same as its.