Chapter 1,258 The product of reaching the pinnacle
The successful firing of flower-glazed porcelain shows that porcelain-making artists in the Tang Dynasty had mastered the mixing of glazes and complex glazing techniques.
The technology mastered in the Tang Dynasty has been lost now.
Such things seem to be common in the porcelain firing process.
For example, Ru kiln porcelain, secret color porcelain, even Yuan blue and white, Xuande sapphire blue, ruby red glaze, Chenghua doucai, etc. have all been lost.
Now that he has encountered it, he must record it in a small book. As long as he has time, Chen Wenzhe plans to re-burn this kind of Tang Dynasty flower Jun.
Now I just want to know, there is definitely no time to re-fire, even if it is yellow glaze, Chen Wenzhe needs to wait, because what he is making now is not yellow glaze porcelain.
Let’s go back to yellow glaze, because yellow glaze is the highest-grade porcelain variety among single-color glazed porcelain.
First, let’s understand what “color glaze” is!
Color glaze, that is, the color of the glaze.
When making glazes, certain metal oxides, or materials, are added as colorants.
In different atmospheres of the kiln, due to the different color reactions of the colorants, the fired glazes also show different colors.
For example, adding copper as a coloring agent to the glaze, and utilizing the coloring reaction of copper in the oxidizing atmosphere of the kiln.
The copper gave the glaze a green color, thus producing porcelain with a green glaze.
If the copper turns the glaze red, porcelain with a red glaze will be fired.
These are all color glazes, so what is yellow glaze porcelain?
Yellow-glazed porcelain is a glaze containing iron oxide that is applied to the porcelain body. In the oxidizing atmosphere of the kiln, the iron causes the glaze to appear yellow-brown or brown-red.
Also depending on the temperature, porcelain with yellow, brown, red and other glaze colors will be fired.
The presentation of specific colors can be achieved by adjusting the proportion of iron oxide in the glaze and the firing temperature.
Not to mention the firing temperature, then the content needs to be adjusted.
The higher the iron content, the darker the color!
It is like a sauce-colored glaze; otherwise, it is light, like a yellow glaze.
Now Chen Wenzhe is making yellow ground enamel porcelain, not a series of yellow glazes. Therefore, after studying and understanding the production process of yellow glaze, Chen Wenzhe began to make Yongzheng yellow ground enamel porcelain.
Of course, now that he has studied and understood the production process of yellow glaze, he will definitely make a series of yellow glaze porcelain after completing the imitation of fine porcelain from the third generation of Qing Dynasty.
This is the same as green glaze, red glaze, blue glaze and other glaze colors. As the most noble variety of single-color glaze, yellow glazed porcelain is naturally worthy of careful study.
Let’s not talk about the production of yellow glazed porcelain, let’s talk about enamel color first!
Enamel color was founded in the late Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. During the Yongzheng period, enamel color was further developed.
Enamel colored porcelain is a new variety of colored porcelain created and fired in the late Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. Under the instruction of Emperor Kangxi, the technique of painting enamel on a copper body was successfully transplanted onto a porcelain body.
In the Yongzheng period, the production was the largest during the Qianlong period, and after Qianlong there were few productions.
During the Qianlong period, the enamel-colored porcelain collected in the palace was once concentrated in Duan Ning Hall. According to archives, there were more than 400 pieces.
According to the records of the Qing Dynasty palace archives and the mark on the original box of the enamel-colored porcelain, the official name of the enamel-colored porcelain should be "porcelain body painted enamel".
Every piece of this kind of imperial porcelain is a treasure, because these enamel-colored porcelains are works of art exclusively for the emperor and empress to appreciate. Even in the palace, they are strictly controlled.
The entire production process also strives for excellence. For example, the white porcelain body required to make it is provided by Jingzhen Royal Kiln Factory.
After being transported to the palace, under the emperor's instruction, it was enamel-made at the Manufacturing Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and carefully painted by the palace painter!
The palace writer, writing poems and signing the invoice!
Finally, it is put into a charcoal furnace and roasted at a temperature of about 600°C.
Throughout the three dynasties of the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi created it, Yongzheng carried it forward, and Qianlong brought it to its peak.
The enamel colors of the Kangxi period are not as good as those of the Yongzheng period, so we will not talk about them here.
During the Yongzheng period, many porcelains were at their peak.
It is not the pinnacle of the three Qing dynasties, but the pinnacle of the world's history.
Not to mention anything else, let’s just talk about the color materials of enamel, which was solved during the Yongzheng period.
Enamel material is a special artificially calcined color material. Before the sixth year of Yongzheng reign (1728), it had to be imported from Europe.
Six years after Yongzheng's reign, the Qing Palace Building Office was able to refine more than 20 kinds of enamel materials by itself.
Moreover, the color variety is more abundant than imported color materials.
Only then did the production of enamel-colored porcelain develop by leaps and bounds.
The enamel porcelain of the Kangxi period mostly used carmine red, egg yolk and blue as the ground.
There is also a unique type of utensils painted with enamel on Yixing purple clay.
Typical enamel-colored porcelain from the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods is an art treasure that combines poetry, calligraphy, painting, and sealing. It is also a product of the peak period of my country's ancient colored porcelain craftsmanship.
Especially the enamel-colored porcelain of the Yongzheng period is the pinnacle of pinnacles.
And this can be said to be determined by Yongzheng’s life and habits!
Emperor Yongzheng lived in the palace for a long time and never traveled around like Kangxi and Qianlong.
He lived deep in the palace and governed the country diligently. He only cared about the production of porcelain in his spare time.
But even so, he always personally inquired, and when officials presented new ceramic styles, he personally reviewed them.
In terms of decorative patterns, Emperor Yongzheng advocated the "respectful style of the inner court" and personally issued the requirements of "elegance" and "meticulousness".
At the same time, academy painters such as Tang Dai, Dai Heng, He Jinkun, Tang Zhenji and Lang Shining were also appointed to produce manuscripts for painting enamelware.
It is under these requirements, or in other words, under the influence, that Yongzheng enamel porcelain is all beautiful.
As far as the decorative patterns of enamel porcelain are concerned, the four elements of poetry, calligraphy, painting and sealing are rarely seen outside the palace, so it can be called a model of "inner palace respectful style".
Due to Yongzheng's personal preferences, the style of porcelain during the Yongzheng period was gradually determined.
Pastels, enamels and ink-colored porcelain all have extremely high artistic value.
From the works handed down from generation to generation, we can see the ultimate pursuit of Emperor Yongzheng:
Smart and beautiful shape, exquisite picture, soft and elegant color, rigorous and standardized style.
The enamel flower and bird vase stolen from the Old Summer Palace is now in the Fontainebleau Palace in France.
Just from this piece of porcelain, you can see the exquisiteness of Yongzheng porcelain.
No wonder Ji Yuansou, a picky ceramic critic in the late Qing Dynasty, said with great enthusiasm: "The Yongzheng official kilns, large and small, are whiter than frost and snow, both light and strong. There are several colorful flowers painted on them, each one is brushed sideways and graceful.
The posture and brushwork are by no means rigid. The flowers are eggplant, purple, egg yolk, azure, and various colors, which are beyond the reach of the Qianlong Dynasty."
While expressing these emotions, Ji Yuansou also used poetic language to describe what he saw about the top-quality porcelain body painted enamel in the Yongzheng official kiln porcelain:
"The whiteness of the filled ground is as white as snow, which is one of the best; it is as thin as an egg curtain, and it is about to fly when it is snarled. If it is reflected by the sun or light, the color of the strokes on the front can be seen on the back, which is two of the best; it can be seen with a very fine microscope.
, the flowers are shiny, bright and slender, the butterflies have downy hairs, and their necks are erect, which are the three unique features; the small pieces are inscribed with extremely fine regular script and seal characters, as thin as a fly's head, which are the four unique features."
Different pictures, same beauty, but it’s a pity that this piece of porcelain is in France!