Chinese patterns that shock Europe
Printed in 1867, Chinese Patterns was written by Owen Jones (1809-1874), a pioneer of modern design and color theory. He is known as the "Newton of the decorative design world", and his "law of decoration" is still the first lesson for designers around the world. He also designed the "Crystal Palace", known as one of the architectural wonders of the nineteenth century, as an architect and as one of the partners founded the world-famous Victoria and Albert Museum.
Left: The title page of the original book"
Right: Owen Jones
Born into an English high-society family, Jones studied design and architectural theory with master architects at the age of fifteen. From 1831 to 1835, he began to study in Rome, Sicily, Athens, Spain and other places, traveling as far as Constantinople in Turkey and Cairo in Egypt, along the way he carefully recorded the pattern of local buildings and vessels.
In 1856, he published a monograph, Classic Illustrated Catalogue of World Decorations (also translated as The Law of Decoration). It was in this influential work that Jones expressed his contempt for Chinese decorative arts: "Chinese incapable of dealing with traditional ornamentation and patterns. ”
The reason why he commented on Chinese patterns in this way is because the Chinese porcelain exported to Europe at that time was more than exquisite and boring in order to please the Western aesthetic. After the Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion, some of China's royal art works flowed to Europe, which was very different from the "export porcelain" jones had seen before that catered to Western preferences. Jones realized that his previous conclusions were too rash.
Recent wars in China and the Taiping Rebellion have left many public buildings in ruins or looted, and a large number of rich and exquisite decorative works of art have flowed into Europe. These works have never been seen before, and their eye-catching is not only in the essence of craftsmanship, but also in the harmony of colors and the perfection of decoration.
—Foreword to Owen Jones's Pattern of China
In the book "Chinese Patterns", Jones painted 100 of the most representative Chinese patterns, all of which are from the Royal Chinese Ming and Qing Dynasty ceramics, such as blue and white porcelain with rich blue color and white color:
Top: Qing Kangxi blue ground white flowers tangled with flowers plate
Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, UK
Bottom: "Chinese Pattern" plate
Another example is the brilliant glazed red porcelain, the black iron spots floating on the red surface under the glaze, which are formed by the accumulation of trace iron impurities contained in the copper red glaze during the firing process. Jones meticulously paints them all, showing an extraordinary insight into the pattern of the artifacts:
Top: Qingqianlong glaze red tangled branch flower pattern bottle
For example, traditional multicolored porcelain, pastel porcelain, and porcelain tire painting enamelware, Jones uses delicate brushstrokes to reproduce the vessel pattern on the paper, so that the world can see the weather of The Chinese pattern:
Top: Multicolored gold three-layer gourd bottle
Top: Qingqianlong Yangcai Yellow Ground Yanghua Square Vase
Collection of the National Palace in Taipei
Tangled floral patterns, cloud shoulder patterns, curly grass patterns... Is every pattern so stunning that people can't wait to save it as wallpaper?
Quoted from the Erya Guoxue public account