Chapter 1,667 The pinnacle of ancient color craftsmanship
Underglaze paint, as the name suggests, is painted under the glaze layer.
During firing, colored pigments are first used to draw various patterns on the blank.
The principle is the same as that of glaze, relying on metallic elements for color.
It is then covered with a layer of transparent or light-colored glaze, and finally fired in a kiln at a high temperature of about 1,300 degrees.
Because the patterns of underglaze color are covered under the glaze layer, the surface of underglaze color porcelain is smooth and bright, not easy to wear and will never fade.
However, the shortcomings of underglaze paint are also obvious. The pigments are fired together with the body and must be able to withstand high temperatures and resist the dissolution of the glaze. There are very few varieties that can meet this requirement, so there are relatively few types of underglaze colors.
Underglaze color can be traced back to the Three Kingdoms period, but at that time it was just a simple application of black pigments, and no complex patterns were formed, so it cannot be called "painting".
Real painted porcelain did not appear until the Tang Dynasty.
Shachang Kiln, a famous kiln in the Tang Dynasty, was the first kiln entrance to use painting art to decorate porcelain in the history of my country's porcelain making.
The colored porcelain at the entrance of this kiln is usually painted with brown, green, red and other colors, and is covered with a layer of bland celadon glaze, which pioneered underglaze painting.
This had a profound impact on the birth of subsequent blue and white, underglaze multicolored and other varieties.
The Shachang kiln was the beginning of colored porcelain, but the celadon glaze greatly reduced the beauty of the painted porcelain. Therefore, blue and white porcelain painted on white porcelain appeared later.
Blue and white porcelain uses cobalt as the pigment and was first created in the Tang Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, due to the successful creation and firing of Jingzhen egg white glaze, the appearance of Yuan blue and white porcelain was greatly improved and it quickly matured.
Referring to the firing process of blue and white porcelain, the cobalt pigment was replaced with copper pigment to obtain underglaze red.
Underglaze red was created in the Yuan Dynasty. During the same period, craftsmen in Jingzhen combined blue and white with underglaze red to create the top noble porcelain - blue and white underglaze red.
Then there are the underglaze three colors. During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, on the basis of the blue and white underglaze red, the pea green color with iron as the pigment was added again, so that the colors of the underglaze colors were expanded to blue, red, and pea green, which are called underglaze colors.
Three colors or three colors in glaze.
Because cobalt, copper, and iron pigments have different requirements for temperature and atmosphere (the amount of oxygen in the kiln), it is very difficult to fire underglaze tricolor, and handed down products are extremely rare.
In addition, there are Liling under-glaze multi-colors. During the Guangxu and Xuantong years of the late Qing Dynasty, Liling, Hunan, once again innovated and successfully fired under-glaze multi-colors with richer colors.
The so-called "five colors" do not specifically refer to five colors.
In fact, Liling's underglaze colors are made from five primary colors: red, green, blue, yellow and black.
On the basis of these five primary colors, a rich range of colors is blended, covering almost all color systems.
These are all classic underglaze colors. Another major category of porcelain is overglaze colors.
The characteristics of underglaze color are very obvious. It is colored porcelain with patterns painted directly on the glaze layer, which is called overglaze color.
When firing, you need to first fire white glazed porcelain (there are also unglazed porcelain), then paint on the fired porcelain, and finally put it into a flower-baking furnace for a second firing at a low temperature of about 800 degrees.
Overglaze color is developed on the basis of low-temperature glaze. Because the firing temperature is relatively low, it also needs to add fluxes such as lead.
Compared with underglaze paint, overglaze paint has richer colors.
However, because it is painted directly on the glaze, the pattern has a concave and convex feel, is easy to wear, and trace elements such as lead and cadmium will dissolve out.
Therefore, if overglaze is used to decorate tableware, it will basically avoid the interior or mouth parts of the tableware.
There are many varieties of underglaze colors, the most famous of which is definitely Songjiacai.
The earliest overglaze color in my country originated from Ding Kiln, a famous kiln in the Song Dynasty.
On the fired white porcelain, inscriptions are either written with red paint or painted with gold (silver) paint, and then baked at low temperature, which is called "Song Jiacai".
Later, the Cizhou kiln, Pacun kiln and other kilns in the Jin Dynasty imitated the kilns, and applied various colors such as red, green, gold and so on to one utensil.
Among them, the two colors of red and green are called red and green colors, and the three colors of red, green and yellow are called "golden three colors".
On the basis of the addition of colors in the Song Dynasty, during the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, the colors of overglaze colors were further enriched, and five colors were created.
However, five colors do not necessarily appear on multicolored porcelain at the same time. The so-called "five" just refers to more colors.
Generally speaking, overglaze colors with more than three colors, including red, can be called multicolored.
Those without red and dominated by yellow, green, purple and other colors are called plain three colors.
The five colors of the Ming Dynasty were mainly red, green, yellow, purple and other colors.
During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the invention of blue, gold and black colors made the picture more gorgeous, and the five colors developed to their peak and became the mainstream of colored porcelain.
However, the good times did not last long. After Yongzheng, pastel colors became popular, and five colors could only be produced in small quantities as antique porcelain, so they were also called "ancient colors".
In addition, because the firing temperature of Wucai is slightly higher than pastel, the color is not as soft as pastel, so it is also called "hard color".
Wucai is a "hard color". Correspondingly, the pastel colors created in the late Kangxi period and matured in Yongzheng and Qianlong generations are naturally "soft colors".
Its "pink" and "soft" come from its unique craftsmanship.
When pastels are painted, a white colorant called "glass white" is added to the paint.
The glass white has an opacifying effect, which can give the painted pictures a pink and soft effect.
In addition, pastels will also use rendering to express light and shade during the painting process, so that each color has different levels of changes, increasing the expressiveness of the painting.
Enamel, a mineral pigment, was introduced by Yin Lang in the Yuan Dynasty.
Painting this pigment on a copper body is the famous cloisonne, and painting it on a porcelain body is enamel.
Enamel color was created in the late Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, and the production process is very cumbersome.
First, white porcelain is fired in jdz; then the white porcelain is sent to the capital of the gods, where it will be painted, inscribed with poems, and signed by a court painter;
Finally, the enamel was fired by the Manufacturing Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Unlike ordinary painting pigments, enamel contains a large amount of silicon oxide (the main component of glass) and is more like low-temperature lead glaze.
After firing, the surface is smooth and has a glass texture, and has a certain thickness, which can clearly show the three-dimensional effect and layering.
During the Kangxi period, all enamel pigments were imported, and there were relatively few types of colors, so they could only paint simple floral themes.
Six years after Yongzheng's reign, the Qing Palace Building Office developed nearly 20 kinds of enamel pigments.
During this period, the colors were greatly enriched, which led to the rapid development of the production of enamel-colored porcelain, and the ancient Chinese colored porcelain craftsmanship also reached its peak.
In order to fully highlight the gorgeous and colorful paintings, overglaze colors are basically painted on white porcelain.
But there are also special cases. After the pattern is painted on the fired white porcelain (or unglazed porcelain), a layer of low-temperature colored glaze is applied to the blank space as the ground color, and then it is fired in the kiln for the second time at low temperature, which is called
Low temperature color glaze overglaze color.
Varieties include green color on yellow ground, three colors on yellow ground, yellow color on blue ground, three colors on blue ground, yellow color on red ground, red color on green ground, three colors on purple ground, etc. Our website: