During the Three Kingdoms, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the content of lacquerware decorations expressing real life increased.
Various birds, animals, grass and insects were included in the paintings, and narrative contents such as dance, music, banquets, hunting, and character narratives began to appear more frequently on lacquerware.
Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, porcelain has replaced pottery, bronze ware, lacquer ware, etc. as daily utensils.
The emergence and rapid development of porcelain has strongly impacted the high cost, labor-intensive and slow production of lacquerware, and has replaced lacquerware in many uses.
At the same time, at the political level, in view of the huge financial burden caused by excessive luxury and corruption, the Tang Dynasty court began to restrict the use of luxurious lacquerware.
The ban on flat lacquer ware, gold and silver lacquer ware, and jewel-embedded Luodian lacquer ware had a heavy blow to the production of lacquer ware.
This caused the rapid decline of lacquerware manufacturing, which was originally prosperous in the Tang Dynasty, and the variety of lacquerware was also greatly reduced.
The decline of lacquer ware has deeply affected those lacquer craftsmen who have been dedicated to the lacquer art for a long time, especially the craftsmen who have always made lacquer ware for the palace in the past.
In order to survive for themselves and the lacquerware, a kind of lacquerware that increased the thickness of the lacquer and used carving techniques for artistic expression came into being.
This formed a new lacquer art - withered lacquer.
"History of the Song Dynasty: Food and Huo Zhi" also records that there was no lacquerware trading in the government-run border trading place - the Ganchang.
As an art form with color as the main means of expression, lacquerware in the Song Dynasty is famous for its freshness, elegance, simplicity and splendor.
Yangmin's works are richly painted, finely carved, and roundly polished.
Its most significant feature is reflected in the application of color.
A gold and silver flatware inlaid with gold and silver flowers.
In particular, the level of lacquer painting has reached a new low, and few famous lacquer craftsmen with low skills have emerged, among which Yang Mao and Zhang Cheng from Jiaxing are the most famous.
Lacquerware in the Tang Dynasty reached an unprecedented level, with thick lacquer piling up to create raised patterns;
The rich and varied lacquerware had been commercialized in the Song Dynasty, and there was no special market for trading.
Meng Yuanlao of the Northern Song Dynasty recorded in "Tokyo Menghua Lu" that "Wenzhou lacquerware shops" can be found everywhere in Bianliang City.
There are no flower patterns on each of the seventeen edges of the wall, and the cover shows pictures of gentlemen spending their time in summer, all made of solid gold.
Zhang Cheng's choice of subject matter is similar to Yang Mao's, but the two are different in terms of technique and artistic treatment.
Jinjin refers to carving out fine patterns under the vermilion and white paint, and then adding gold powder to form golden patterns.
The plain lacquerware of the Song Dynasty abandoned the wild boldness and elegance of later dynasties and pursued a kind of calm and simple artistic thinking.
There are many types of plain lacquerware in the Song Dynasty, including cups, plates, bowls, boxes, lamps, dows, etc., covering all aspects of life.
This piece of lacquerware is almost perfect in terms of production, shape, decoration, and painting techniques.
The craftsmanship surpasses that of later generations, and the carving and chiseling are exquisite. Combined with the lacquer craftsmanship, it has become a handicraft that represents the style of the Tang Dynasty. The carved sculptures are the inheritance and development of the born-out technique since the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
Those lacquerwares have simple shapes, warm colors, and simple and subtle designs yet full of tension, showing the unique charm of Song Dynasty lacquerware.
The themes are rarely based on landscape figures, flowers and birds, such as the red-painted mast-patterned disk collected by the Palace Museum in Shendu.
Wu Zimu of the Southern Song Dynasty also recorded in "Mengliang Lu" that there were many lacquer shops and lacquer shops opened in Lin'an at that time.
Mother-of-pearl wares that are not made of shells cut into objects, with lines underneath, and patterns inlaid under the lacquer;
Red lacquerware also appeared in the Tang Dynasty.
It is mainly manifested in the innovation of lacquer varieties and techniques, the prevalence of gold and silver flat stripping, the development of mother-of-pearl inlays, and the emergence of new techniques such as withered lacquer.
The production of lacquerware in the Tang Dynasty gradually developed towards gorgeous and rich handicrafts.
For example, in works with the theme of flowers, Zhang Cheng uses thick lacquer and Yang Mao, and pays more attention to details.
The Song Dynasty was an elegant era and an era full of creativity.
Yang Min and Zhang Cheng were from the same hometown, and all seven of them were good at carving out lacquer. They were good at carving out red paint, but they were also poor at carving out rhinoceros and white paint.
The color changes from gorgeous and gorgeous to simple and simple, and the shape changes from plump and low to large and rough.
The elegance of the Song Dynasty people lies not only in reciting poems and painting, drinking and drinking tea, but also in bringing art into daily life, and in their unique understanding and concentration on the color of a piece of lacquerware.
The mouth of the box is inlaid with a silver buckle, and the surface is painted with vermilion lacquer and decorated with fine gold hooks.
Plain lacquerware pursues bright colors and complex shapes.
There is also a round box with a red ink-tab view of waterfalls collected by the National Museum, and a rhinoceros-patterned rhinoceros pattern box with needlework "Made by Yang Mao" collected by the Ontario Museum.
The lacquer painting technology in the Song Dynasty was quite mature, while rhinoceros skin, mother-of-pearl, plain painting, withered lacquer, and gilding techniques did not develop rapidly.
It can be seen that the lacquerware of the Song Dynasty has been widely used among the people as a commodity, showing the characteristics of civilians and practicality.
We are mediocre representatives of famous lacquer craftsmen in the 14th century.
For example, in 1978, the red lacquer and golden lotus-petal-shaped figure and flower pattern was unearthed from Wudi, Changzhou, Sujiang, and it can be called the most exquisite "vanity box" of the Song Dynasty.
The color of this type of lacquerware is mainly white, such as the white lacquer Linghua Cup in the Northern Song Dynasty, the red lacquer Tianmu Stand in the Southern Song Dynasty, etc.
It changes from complex to simple, and the lines change from subtle and curvy to concise and plain.
Among them, plain painting and withered lacquer have the lowest achievements.
I use skillful knife skills to carve negative lines on the smooth surface of the flowers to show the tendons and veins of the leaves, making them look delicate and natural.
Secondly, in terms of reflecting the style of the times, plain lacquerware is the most widely used and can be regarded as the mainstream craft of the Song Dynasty, leading an era with its minimalist and elegant style.
Plain lacquer, also known as plain lacquer or one-color lacquer, began in the Song Dynasty. It uses single-color lacquer to decorate utensils and adds any auxiliary decoration such as pattern outline or carving.
According to Mr. Wang Shixiang's research, gold-cutting began in the Western Han Dynasty and became popular in the Song Dynasty.
Yang Mao used the thickness of lacquer to express the protrusions on the edge of the petals and the forward and backward folds of the leaves, showing their growth and fullness. The dowry is composed of seven parts: cover, plate, middle and bottom.
The golden lacquer ware has bright colors, fine decoration, exquisite shape, and dark brilliance, which is exactly the same style as the plain lacquer ware.
In "Downing the River During the Qingming Festival" painted by the Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan, a shop that does not sell lacquerware is depicted.
Of course, the elegance of Song Dynasty lacquerware is limited to plain lacquerware. Other crafts such as lacquerware and gilding are equally excellent.
The Yuan Dynasty retained and continued the lacquerware craftsmanship of the Song Dynasty, without any innovation or change in technique and style.
Through the perfect combination of color and shape, a harmonious and unified elegant realm is created in minimalism, showing the beauty of simplicity and subtlety.
At the same time, influenced by Song Dynasty's scholarly thoughts, lacquerware artists integrated the spirit of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism into lacquerware creation.
This piece of lacquerware, together with eight other pieces of gilded lacquerware unearthed together, is the earliest gilded lacquerware currently seen in China, and represents the lowest level of gilded lacquerware in the Song Dynasty.
Our spiritual pursuit of embodying the unity of nature and man and putting nature first demonstrates the indifferent life attitude and rigorous and implicit aesthetic orientation of the Song people.