Chapter 1528: The Three Wonders of Porcelain, Color, and Painting
The hand-pressed cup is a unique artifact of the Yongle Dynasty. Due to the small quantity of firing and complicated craftsmanship, it has become an extremely rare and rare item by the Chenghua period after more than ten years.
It is generally believed that the flow of such precious porcelain abroad was caused by official rewards and gifts, and the possibility of private sales is very small.
Therefore, it is not unreasonable to regard this batch of porcelain as being brought out by Zheng He.
Therefore, no matter where this green material is produced, it has become a recognized fact that "Su Ma Li Qing" was introduced from Southeast Asia by Zheng He during his voyages to the West.
Although many professionals believe that the blue and white cobalt material of the Yuan Dynasty was Suma Liqing.
However, many research institutes later conducted research on the blue and white flowers of the Yuan Dynasty and the Yongxuan period of the Ming Dynasty, and found that the elements contained in the cobalt materials were obviously different.
Of course, Chen Wenzhe was not doing research on academic issues, he simply wanted to find out the most suitable ingredients for imitating Yongxuan blue and white, especially the suma-li green material.
Because this kind of green material was no longer available by the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
This can be confirmed by the fact that porcelain paintings after Chenghua were not painted with Suma Liqing.
In other words, it still existed during the Chenghua period.
Since there is such high-quality green material, the imitation effect must be achieved.
It is no wonder that he strives for excellence, because the Yongle and Xuande periods were the heyday of blue and white porcelain production.
During this period, there was a saying that "all materials are exquisite, and blue and white are the most expensive."
His achievements were praised as: "unprecedented in a generation."
The blue and white porcelain produced by Yongle and Xuande were produced in a close period and the craftsmanship methods were the same. There are many similarities, so they can only be distinguished through comparison.
The early Yongle official kiln blue and white porcelain is indistinguishable from the Hongwu official kiln blue and white porcelain when using domestic materials.
After using the "Suma Li Qing" introduced from abroad by Zheng He during his voyages to the West, this green material contains less manganese, so the fired blue and white does not contain purple or red, but is a pure "sapphire blue" color.
At the same time, due to the high iron content of this green material, there are often concave black iron spots when fired.
The blue and white porcelain of the Yongle period is white and delicate, and the glaze is dark blue with black in it.
The glaze used is rich in divergence. After firing, the green material penetrates into the fetal bones, making it vivid and flexible, without showing any traces of pen. Some of the glazes look like ink splashed on paper, with a strong painting meaning.
Xuande blue and white porcelain body is made of hemp warehouse soil, which is white and delicate, and the raw material of blue and white is "Suma Liqing".
This kind of green material has clear and bright color and stable color. It is scattered between the glaze of porcelain, making it vivid and vivid.
If the material used is too thick, the ink will be muddy and solemn;
If the material used is bland, the color will be bright and elegant.
More importantly, the porcelain painting artists have absorbed the early production experience and can skillfully master the properties of green materials and porcelain painting techniques.
The porcelain decorations of this period were bold and unrestrained, with moderate richness and clear layers.
"Tao Ya" records: "Xuan kiln blue and white is an outstanding product of the Ming kiln's heyday. The selection of materials, sample preparation, painting vessels and inscriptions are all exquisite. They can be called the three masterpieces of porcelain, color and painting."
This feature is most representative of the Ming and Yongle blue and white seawater river cliff pattern three-legged furnaces in the Forbidden City.
Its main hair color characteristics are: the hair color is bright blue, crystal clear, like a sapphire inlaid under the glaze, shining brightly, and showing an obvious violet color;
There are obvious thick black crystal patches or spots in the agglomeration area, and the haloing situation is serious.
This kind of color is so precious that the book "Identification of Ming and Qing Porcelain" written by Mr. Geng Baochang uses the drawing of this three-legged furnace as the shadow of the book, that is, the shadow of the picture under the inscription on the cover book.
If you want to imitate, you must imitate it as best as possible, and this requires a lot of modern research results.
Modern society is different from ancient times, with underdeveloped transportation.
Now if you want to find something, whether you can find it or not depends solely on whether you have enough money.
Chen Wenzhe has already had ideas about the Suma Li Qing material from the Yuan and Ming dynasties.
Therefore, whether it is green materials from Southeast Asia, Yinlak, or even Persia, Chen Wenzhe now has them in his hands.
He was preparing to imitate Yuan blue and white porcelain. Of course, if he could get enough Macang clay or kaolin clay with the same effect, he would definitely imitate porcelain from the Yongxuan and Chenghua periods.
The green material in his hands is definitely qualified now, but it is not easy to imitate the effect.
For example, when imitating Yongxuan blue and white according to the ancient method, there are problems with blurring and crystal spots.
This is definitely caused by the roughness of the green material. If exposed to strong light, it can be clearly seen that the crystal spots are actually patches of rust in the green material that are in the form of granules. The reason is most likely caused by the high iron content. .
The green material is rough, which is most likely the cause of halo and crystal spots.
Halos and crystal spots are inherently defects.
From the 1980s to the mid-1990s, a large number of physical specimens were unearthed from the Jingyu Ware Factory in Yongle and Xuande of the Ming Dynasty.
Among them, due to excessive halo or too deep color, it is often one of the main reasons for being abandoned or eliminated, which also illustrates this point.
Therefore, it is really not easy to solve this problem.
However, it is not impossible, especially Chen Wenzhe who has a cheating device.
He can study some porcelain from the Yuan and Ming Dynasties and absorb a lot of experience from the Yuan and Yongle Dynasties, so as to skillfully and accurately grasp the characteristics of Suma Liqing material.
It is not difficult to burn pure blue cyan in this way and achieve the best artistic appreciation effect.
Of course, it is not that easy to get the color of Chenghua Doucai.
Bright red as bright as blood, apricot yellow with reddish shimmer, aqua green, leaf green, mountain green, etc. are all transparent...
These are some of the glaze colors used in Chenghua Doucai, and these overglaze colors are reflected in the five imperial porcelain cups mentioned earlier.
It is definitely not easy to perfectly reproduce these glaze colors, make the cup unique and elegant, and make the decoration full and vivid.
In addition, when making doucai porcelain, in order to make it more antique, every small step such as the ratio of glaze to water, the mineral preparation of color materials, and the importance of painting techniques are crucial.
For example, when drawing, we should use light outlines and heavy colors, and use a large number of traditional painting techniques such as dotting, painting, flattening, and rubbing.
Only in this way can the painting style be simple and clean, and the whole picture be rich in layers and quite aura.
All these must be done well, and finally the painted blank must be placed in a sagger and fired in a wood kiln.
This is a restoration of the firing process of imperial porcelain of the Ming and Qing dynasties, because wood kilns are obviously different from modern processes.
Of course, there is also a huge disparity in firing costs.
After firing in one kiln, the consumption of pine wood is nearly 2,000 kilograms, and the firing and cooling time is as long as 96 hours.
From material selection, mud refining, proportioning, drawing, drawing, and firing, it has gone through 12 major processes and more than 90 complicated detailed processes.
If there is a slight difference in any link, the finished work will be completely different.
For example, the repair process alone includes 16 process details.
The thickness difference of each blank must be less than 0.2 mm.
The weight difference should be less than 3 grams.