The Kang, Yong and Qian dynasties of the Qing Dynasty was a historical peak in the development of colored porcelain production in Jingdezhen Royal Factory, and both monochrome glaze and mixed colored porcelain at that time were enough to be breathtaking. Among them, carmine should be regarded as one of the most innovative representative glazes of the period.
Carmine is different from the copper red and alum red used in the previous imperial factory porcelain making, it is a pink colored with gold with a purple hue, because the glaze contains gold, so it is often called "golden red". This method of melting gold into the glaze to color was not invented by Jingdezhen porcelain workers, but was invented by the Dutchman Cassias in 1650, began to be applied to porcelain painting in 1680, and began to be used in Jingdezhen until 1682 (kangxi twenty-one years), when it was called "yangcai" and carmine was called "magenta".
Although carmine was introduced to the Jingdezhen Imperial Factory in the early kangxi period, due to its high scientific and technological content and more expensive cost, it was not popularized and used by the imperial factory until the end of the Kangxi Dynasty. In the middle and late Yongzheng period, due to the development and innovation of imperial factory porcelain, carmine was gradually promoted and used in many fields of colored porcelain. The real use of carmine freely and widely popularized is the Qianlong period, during which carmine was used almost extravagantly to decorative techniques such as color, carving, and rolling.
First, carmine hair color factors
It should be said that the word "carmine" in the official kiln is only a general term for the above-mentioned red glaze with purple tones, due to the formula, the proportion of ingredients, the glazing method, the firing situation and other different factors, "carmine" can present a variety of different hair color states. For example, in addition to the rouge infrared of the partial painting rendering decoration, only its color glaze can be roughly divided into "pink", "carmine", "rouge water", "carmine purple" and so on. Since carmine hair color is related to too many variables, the author cannot go into them one by one, so I will highlight the relationship between it and the gold content and firing temperature.
1. The relationship between carmine hair color and gold content in glaze
When it comes to the gold content in carmine, it is easy for the general people to misunderstand that the gold content is large, in fact, the content of gold in carmine is not high, basically between one and two parts per thousand. The principle of carmine's hair color is similar to that of copper red, using the gold in the glaze to become a colloidal state in suspension, and producing different hues due to the size of its particles. According to relevant information, when the gold content in the glaze is 1/10,000, a pink hue is produced (Figure 1); When the gold content is 2/10,000, a ruby hue is produced (Figure 2).
Since there are not many pink glazes of carmine (Figure 1) in The Yong and Qianguan kiln products, people's understanding of them is relatively vague, so it is easy to misunderstand the carmine hair color of Figure 1 as having nothing to do with carmine glaze, and use the term "pink glaze" when calling them, but according to the analysis of the data on gold content and carmine hair color, this type of pink glaze is only a lighter color of carmine that appears due to the low gold content.
2. The relationship between carmine hair color and firing temperature
Since the firing of carmine glaze involves chemical reactions, it has to be directly related to the firing temperature. According to relevant information: "If the glaze mixed with an appropriate amount of gold powder is heated at high temperature, it will become colorless and transparent." If the temperature is lowered, it will show a ruby red color at a certain point, and if the temperature gradually decreases, the red will slowly bring some purple, and finally become purple, purple blue, blue, and finally become light cyan. "It is precisely because temperature also directly affects the carmine hair color, it is necessary to supplement the carmine hair color of Figure 1 and Figure 2 here, not only due to the gold content in the glaze, but also to other factors such as firing temperature.
Second, the application of carmine in Qing Dynasty color porcelain
Since the carmine hair color is more gorgeous, and can be appropriately adjusted according to the application concentration of the pigment (in fact, the glaze concentration, gold content, etc.) to adjust the color appropriately, so the royal factory porcelain workers can use carmine material when they encounter the need for light red rose color and thick carmine color when making color porcelain. According to the existing heirlooms, in the three generations of the Qing Dynasty, whether it is doucai, pastel, enamel or monochrome glaze, more or less used carmine glaze.
In addition to playing a pivotal role in colored porcelain such as doucai, pastel, and enamel, the royal factory also uses it to produce many exquisite monochrome glaze products. It is precisely because carmine hair color is related to many factors and the hue is difficult to fix, so its monochromatic glaze tone will be presented at any point between pink and purple, for example, Figure 6 and Figure 7 are examples of different hair color of carmine glaze due to different factors.
Third, the development of carmine in the third generation of the Qing Dynasty
According to the production of carmine in the third generation of the Qing Dynasty, the development of carmine in the Kang, Yong and Qian dynasties can be roughly divided into three stages: early, middle and late.
1. Early stage
Because carmine was only introduced to Jingdezhen during the Kangxi Period, the production technology matured late and the popularity was not widespread, so it belonged to the precious glaze. Judging from the existing heirlooms, the early carmine glaze in the production of imperial porcelain was basically limited to the local rendering of fine colored porcelain (mostly the petal part), and only a very small number of enamel products (that is, enamel porcelain) were decorated with carmine color.
2. Medium-term stage
With the mastery of the production of carmine glaze by the porcelain workers of the Royal Factory, there were many carmine monochrome glazes and carmine pastel products in the Yongzheng period, but because the carmine tone is more difficult to grasp uniformly, in addition to the basic consistency of the hair color of the pairs of carmine products, the non-paired products have uneven colors and different shades.
The carmine of the Yongzheng period is not limited to the relatively dry carmine tone, the monochrome glaze in the middle and late Yongzheng period has undergone great development and change, the royal factory uses multiple blowing glaze method to thicken the surface glaze layer, and the carmine produced by firing is delicate and dripping, condensed like water (Figure 11), so the effect of carmine is more favored by porcelain players, often called "rouge water". In fact, rouge water is only an improved product of carmine in the past, because the glaze water is rich and the hair color is bright, it has a water-like effect.
3. Later stage
The later stage of carmine in the qing dynasty is mainly reflected in the extensive use of "carmine land" and "carmine rolling road" in enamel and pastel. In order to make the glaze of the product glaze moist multiple times lead to a thick glaze layer on the surface of the utensils, the glaze water flows to varying degrees during firing, so the color of the rouge water often appears uneven with different shades.
The biggest feature of the official kiln color porcelain products in the Qianlong period was the elaborate decoration, and the carmine decoration, especially the carmine rolling road decoration, accounted for a large proportion of it. People who know Qianlong colored porcelain should not be unfamiliar with the "carmine rolling road" products, this production process first appeared in the Qianlong period, also known as "carmine icing on the cake", "purple land icing on the cake" and "purple ground rolling road" and so on. Because this type of product needs to be full of glaze water, it should be on the basis of the maturity of the original "rouge water" technology, and the porcelain workers of the Royal Factory have further processed it many times at the expense of work, and carved the phoenix tail single pattern on the carmine (water) ground to achieve a more complicated effect.
All in all, the carmine glaze in the third generation of the Qing Dynasty produced many artistic effects due to its variability, not only applied to simple monochrome glazed porcelain, but also involved in other colored porcelain such as doucai, pastel, enamel and other colored porcelain, which played a pivotal role in the Qing Dynasty imperial factory porcelain.