When it comes to ceramic color, Tang Sancai and Qinghua are often the most commonly spoken words in people's mouths. Recently, the Dongguan City Museum "Huacai Palace Porcelain - Shenyang Palace Museum Collection of Qing Palace Porcelain Exhibition" let the public change the previous inherent impression, with brilliant and dazzling exquisite ceramics to popularize the story behind the glaze color, and said the other "glaze" intentions behind the palace porcelain.
Behind the various glaze colors is the embodiment of the Qing Dynasty court's "debate of rank, Ming respect and inferiority". More importantly, the glaze color reflects the top ceramic craftsmanship in ancient China and is a major embodiment of the enduring "traditional Chinese color aesthetics".
The color glaze like a gouache painting, the yellow glaze that symbolizes the position of power, the kiln glaze like a "blind box", the bionic porcelain that imitates "fake and real"... The mystery behind the brilliance is in the glaze color.
"Gouache painting" on porcelain: color glaze
Fighting
Doucai is a combination of underglaze blue and white and glaze painting, the color porcelain process, first use blue and white pigments on the porcelain embryo to outline the pattern outline, apply transparent glaze high temperature firing; then on the glaze with a variety of color materials to fill the painting, by low temperature secondary baking. Doucai porcelain sprouted in the Ming Xuande period, flourished in the Ming Chenghua period, because the imperial court in the middle and late Ming Dynasty ordered a reduction in burning and the production volume was small, and the process was flat.
The three dynasties of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty all inherited and developed on the basis of Ming Chenghua Doucai, and Yongzheng Doucai was even more brilliant. His paintings are painted with pastels, and the patterns are stronger, and they are gorgeous and relaxed. In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, social turmoil and economic stagnation, the royal kiln factory was no longer valued by the emperor, and Doucai porcelain once again fell into a low tide and stagnation.
multicolored
Wucai is a glazed porcelain painted with a variety of pigments on the fired plain tire, and then fired at a low temperature of about 800 ° C in the kiln. The color is mainly red, yellow, blue, green and purple, and the glaze color is glassy after firing, with a hard texture, so it is also called "hard color". The five colors were first seen in the Ming Xuande period, the Jiajing and Wanli periods developed to the peak stage, and the Qing Kangxi period reached its peak.
pastel
Pastel is a low-temperature glaze color variety directly affected by enamel color on the basis of the Kangxi five colors. It is characterized by a glass white base containing lead powder, and then renders various color materials on it, and the drawing image is expressive, thick and light, because the color containing glass white is opaque and gives people a "pink" feeling, so it is called "pastel".
The "imperial color" that symbolizes identity: yellow glaze
Yellow glaze is a glaze color that is fired at low temperatures with iron as the coloring agent. Historically, the "Jiaohuang" of the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty is the most prestigious, and the yellow glaze of the Qing Kangxi period is slightly deeper than the yellow glaze of the Ming Hongzhi. In the late Kangxi Dynasty, due to the successful firing of enamel color, light and elegant antimony yellow was introduced from abroad. Since then, the Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, and Guangxu periods of the Qing Dynasty have also had yellow glaze firing, and the shape is quite charming.
In the Qing Dynasty, yellow has become the color of the emperor and the queen, of which the whole yellow glaze (that is, the yellow glaze inside and outside the vessel) porcelain is the most noble, and it is natural to become the special product of the emperor and the queen. Half yellow (that is, yellow glaze outside the vessel and white inside the vessel) is secondary, yellow ground plus other colors are again, and other ground colors are added to yellow dragons.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the emperor can use porcelain with bright yellow glaze inside and outside without limit, the empress dowager and empress can also use pure yellow glaze porcelain, but the annual share is still strictly limited.
The "blind box" of the ancient pottery official: the kiln becomes glazed
Kiln glaze is the unexpected glaze color effect of the utensil during the firing process. Due to the variety of coloring elements in the kiln, after oxidation or reduction, porcelain may show an unexpected glaze color after leaving the kiln. Because it is obtained by accident and roasting changes in the kiln, it is called "kiln glaze".
The tide of "high imitation": bionic porcelain, antique porcelain
Under the superb porcelain-making process in ancient times, wood, lacquerware, bronze, antiques... All kinds of objects are possible in porcelain, such as "magic tricks".
Bionic porcelain
Bionic porcelain, also known as the least porcelain porcelain, is a special variety of Jingdezhen porcelain making technology in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Bionic porcelain takes porcelain as the tire, through a variety of high-temperature, low-temperature glaze and painting processes, imitation copper, jade, stone, bamboo, wood, lacquer and other textures of utensils, but the exquisite portrait, to achieve enough to chaos the degree, it can be seen that the Jingdezhen kiln porcelain technology is highly developed.
Antique porcelain
Antique porcelain, that is, imitation of its vessel type, glaze color, ornamentation, etc., is a craft with distinctive characteristics of the times in ancient Chinese porcelain. Antique porcelain sprouted in the two Song Dynasties, formed in the Yuan, matured in the Ming, and prospered in the Qing. During the Qing Kangxi Period, imitation Ming Xuande and Chenghua porcelain appeared, and antique porcelain in the Qianlong period was considerable, often imitating Ru kiln, official kiln, Ge kiln, Jun kiln and other famous kiln products.
"Klein blue" on ceramics: blue glaze
Ji blue glaze
Ji blue glaze is a high-temperature lime alkali glaze created by the Jingdezhen kiln in the Yuan Dynasty, which is fired at a high temperature of 1280-1300 °C. The color is deep, the glaze does not flow or crack, the hue is uniform, the color is stable, bright as a gemstone, and together with white glaze and red glaze, it is pushed as the three "top products" of Xuande color glazed porcelain in the Ming Dynasty. The porcelain produced by firing is mainly used for sacrifice and decoration, also known as "sacrifice blue glaze".
Sky blue glaze
Sky blue glaze is a high-temperature color glaze that evolved from "azure blue" and was created and fired during the Kangxi period. The glaze is light and blue, like sky blue, hence the name. The copper, iron, titanium and other metal elements in the glaze all play a role in color rendering, which is stable in color and clean and elegant. The products of the Kangxi period are all small pieces of stationery utensils, and bottles, cans and other utensils were not seen until the Qing Yongzheng and Qianlong periods.
The "colorblind nemesis" comparable to lipstick numbers: red glaze
Coral red glaze
Coral red glaze is a kind of low-temperature alum red glaze with iron trioxide as a colorant. Coral red glazed porcelain is glazed by blowing the glaze method, that is, one end of a bamboo tube is covered with gauze, dipped in the glaze paste, and the mouth is aimed at the other end of the bamboo tube to blow air, and the glaze paste is blown onto the utensils. After low temperature roasting, the copper, iron, gold and other metal elements in the glaze color show a slight sparkle of red in the yellow, which is very similar to the color of natural red coral.
Alum red
Alum red is a low-temperature red glaze made by firing iron oxide as a colorant in an oxidizing atmosphere. Alum red glazed porcelain generally has to be fired twice, that is, fired into white porcelain tires at high temperature, and then coated with alum red material into the kiln low temperature roasting into the vessel, Ming Jiajing Royal Instrument Factory replaced the copper red with alum red. The glaze applied by the brush glaze method is called "smeared red glaze", and the glaze applied by the blowing glaze method is called "coral red glaze".
Lang kiln red glaze
Lang kiln red glaze is a high-temperature copper red glaze created during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. The glaze is strong, the color is intense, like the scarlet of the first coagulated cow's blood, and it is also known as "cow's blood red". The mouth is white because of the glaze sagging "lamp grass edge", the hanging glaze condenses on the edge of the bottom foot, the glaze does not flow, and there is a saying that "the mouth droops the foot and does not flow". Apple green and bright yellow often appear at the bottom, commonly known as "apple green bottom" and "rice soup base".
Lang kiln red glaze has extremely high technical requirements for firing atmosphere, temperature and so on, and the yield is low and the amount of inheritance is small.
[Written] Ma Xinjie
【Design】Ma Xinjie He Qiying
【Source】Dongguan Museum
【Author】 Ma Xinjie He Qiying
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client