Whether it is doucai porcelain, enamel color, or even doucai combined with enamel color porcelain, it is very troublesome to imitate.
Therefore, after copying a few pieces, Chen Wenzhe decisively began to make some simpler porcelain.
For example, colorful and pastel colors are faster to make.
However, during the Yongzheng period, colorful colors were not popular.
The pastel style, which was founded in the late Kangxi period and became successful in the Yongzheng period, is a new achievement of Qing Dynasty porcelain.
The emergence of pastels has changed the performance of pigments.
It allows porcelain painters to use rendering techniques to draw pictures that are more accurate, realistic, and richer in color than five colors.
Therefore, pastel is known as the magnificent sunset among traditional Chinese colored porcelain.
Pastels also flourished in Yongzheng's pursuit of perfection.
Compared with the simple and plain single-color glaze, the characteristics of Emperor Yongzheng are more obvious on the magnificent pastel porcelain.
This point can be seen from a large Yongzheng pastel eight-sided landscape and figure jar.
This large jar is in the shape of an octagon, with the rim and sides decorated with brocade patterns. It is gorgeous and solemn, with eight sides consecrated, and the theme decorations are based on stories about historical figures.
The drawn images are lifelike, the decorations are rich, the colors are bright, and the visual effects are excellent.
Yongzheng pastels reached the pinnacle in the history of pastel firing, and the clues can be seen on this large jar.
From this large jar, you can also see Yongzheng pastels, a major breakthrough in color.
Among them, the greatest achievement is the widespread use of blue on glaze, thus ending the tradition that blue and white must be used to express blue.
This also makes colors more coordinated and painting smoother and easier.
In addition to the large size of this jar, it is extremely rare to have such exquisite painting among the large pastel paintings of Yongzheng period.
Also, unlike the splendor and piling up of other periods, the colored porcelain patterns of the Yongzheng period are obviously restrained.
The human figures, flowers and birds painted on the body of the vessel all have obvious shrinking and gathering features.
The brush strokes used in the decorative painting are also more delicate.
This makes the pictures on the porcelain surface more compact, well-proportioned and full of three-dimensionality.
It can be said that the pastel porcelain of the Yongzheng period achieved extremely high achievements in terms of shape, glaze, and color painting.
The colors used in colored porcelain are also relatively elegant, with soft but not bright colors and a hint of plainness in the color.
Mainly white ground painting, there are also various color ground paintings, such as coral red, light green, sauce ground and ink ground.
Some small utensils such as plates and bowls are exquisite and clear, and around the colorful decorations, a colorful "halo" can often be seen when viewed from the side.
The decorative themes of Yongzheng pastel porcelain are mainly flowers and birds, landscapes and human figures, especially flowers.
It absorbs the "boneless" technique in traditional Chinese painting, emphasizing the yin and yang facing away, alternating shades and light, clear layers, and full of three-dimensional effect.
There are not many such fine porcelain in existence, so the price is naturally high.
For example, the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, a rectangular flower pot with pink and green glaze string patterns. This is a fine piece of six-character seal script. The historical transaction price reached 16.45 million Hong Kong dollars.
There is also a five-petal melon-edge vase imitating the official kiln from the Yongzheng period, which was also inscribed with six-character seal script and was sold for HK$6.85 million.
You must know that this is an ordinary imitation of official kiln wares. Even this kind of unremarkable porcelain can be sold for more than 6 million yuan.
Some other simple types of vessels, such as the Qing Yongzheng Doucai Xishang eyebrow pattern tureen, which is a pair of tureens with double circles, three lines and six characters in regular script, were sold for HK$4.375 million.
There are many other bowls like this. For example, there is a bowl with colorful entwining branches and floral patterns. It is not a lidded bowl and has a double-circle six-character regular script inscription. The transaction price was HK$1.625 million.
If the decoration is slightly better, such as Yongzheng's doucai porcelain, the price will be higher.
Even for cups, the price is not low. For example, a pair of Sanduo pattern cups with double-circle six-character regular script inscriptions were sold for HK$6 million.
Porcelain like this is not often seen on the market, but there are still many in museums.
Of course, the numbers here are all relative.
Compared with the 1.4 billion Chinese people, the number of dozens or even hundreds of Yongzheng official kilns is really too small.
There are still a lot of pastel, blue and white, doucai and ink colors in the museum. If Chen Wenzhe copied them all, he would not have to do anything else in a year.
Therefore, he can only choose high-quality imitations.
Because the porcelain from the Yongzheng period, as long as there are extant ones, every piece is the pinnacle of porcelain in the past dynasties.
Therefore, Chen Wenzhe made more of this batch of porcelain.
Of course, what he makes are all classics, such as the Yongzheng blue and white flat vase of fortune, wealth and longevity, and the Yongzheng blue and white "Dragon Wearing Through Flowers" large plate.
Doucai utensils are the most popular because Yongzheng Doucai was really good.
Compared with the Doucai of Yongzheng and Chenghua of Ming Dynasty, improvements have been made in the decorative layout, color coordination and color-filling technology.
Both the colors and patterns are more refined than before, with thinner colors and very soft and elegant tones.
On this basis, enamel color and gold color were introduced, forming a new process of fighting color plus gold color, and fighting color plus enamel color.
In addition to the original red, yellow, green, purple, and ocher colors, Doucai porcelain also adds a variety of colors such as pink, rouge, lotus root, rose, lake green, etc., making it even more beautiful and delicate.
Yongzheng Doucai with flowers, birds and figures as the decorative theme, with blue and white outlines under the glaze and various colors on the glaze.
The works of this kind of craftsmanship are filled with accurate colors and there are no edges.
In pursuit of color changes, a flower is filled with purple, red, yellow, green, blue and other colors, and the production process is quite mature.
For example, Yongzheng Doucai celestial vase with cloud and dragon pattern, Yongzheng Doucai consecrated jar with folded lotus pattern lid, Yongzheng Doucai candlestick with flower pattern, Yongzheng Doucai amphorae with pastel cloud and dragon pattern, etc., are all exquisite products.
It is important to mention here that when making pastels, Chen Wenzhe also specially made an embroidery pier with ancient Yongzheng pastel paintings.
This type of utensil is quite special. Chen Wenzhe has never made it before, so he made it first.
Yongzheng pastels were very prosperous, and there were naturally many good works.
For example, the pastel pheasant and peony pattern plates from the Yongzheng period are also very famous.
The decoration of this piece is more in line with Chen Wenzhe's current plan, with peony patterns inside.
Pastel pheasant and peony pattern plate, the inner bottom of the plate is painted with pheasant and peony pattern, lined with travertine, magnolia and chrysanthemum patterns.
The decorative style of this plate is close to the pastel porcelain of the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.
In particular, the decorative method of consecrating a brocade ground around the rim and filling the center of the plate with patterns is very common in pastel utensils during the Kangxi period.
It can be inferred from this that this artifact should be an early work of Yongzheng.
The use of pheasants, peonies, travertine, etc. in decoration means "good luck and wealth" and "longevity and wealth".
This decorative technique of borrowing meaning from objects was very popular on porcelain in the Qing Dynasty.
And why is it so popular? Isn’t it because the effect is more beautiful?
It has a good meaning and is even more beautiful, so naturally we should do more of it.