Chapter 1915: Thousands of texts, too numerous to comprehend
Another example is the works with landscape as the theme. Yang Mao mostly uses close-up compositions and uses delicate expression techniques to highlight the activities of the characters.
Zhang Cheng pays more attention to the artistic conception of landscapes and overall changes.
There are not many of Yang Mao's handed down works currently available.
For example, the red flower-patterned statue collected by the National Palace Museum in Shendu, the octagonal red waterfall viewing plate, and the red plum-flower pattern plate collected by the Shendu Art Museum.
Although Zhang Cheng and Yang Mao don't have many handed down works, they are all fine lacquer products from the Yuan Dynasty and represent the highest level of lacquer craftsmanship in the Yuan Dynasty.
From their works, we can see their unique artistic talent and ingenious lacquer techniques.
In addition to the two lacquer masters Zhang Cheng and Yang Mao, there was also Zhang Minde, a famous red lacquer master in the late Yuan Dynasty.
He inherited Zhang Cheng's techniques and made them more delicate.
Therefore, some people speculate that he may be a descendant of Zhang Cheng.
In the Palace Museum in Shendu, there is a round box with a red flower-viewing picture. The inside of the lid has "Made by Zhang Minde" stamped on one side.
There are many varieties of Yangmao lacquerware, but few remains, so Yangmao wares seen today are rare.
The works are rarely decorated with flowers and landscape figures, making them quiet and elegant.
"The red paint is also withered red paint. The thickness of the paint layer, the light and dark of the vermilion, and the roughness of the carving are all very clumsy. The Tang Dynasty Shaojie printing plates are engraved with flat brocade and vermilion, and the carving method is ancient and clumsy, which can be appreciated, and the yellow ground is lost again.
Jin Zhe."
Dozens to hundreds of lacquer layers are applied, and patterns are carved or stacked with needles and knives to reduce the unevenness and show the beauty of yin and yang.
These include "seventy red ruler plates and eighty red incense boxes..."
It is a microcosm of the development history of lacquer making technology in your country from the 13th to the 18th century.
In addition, Zhang Cheng and Yang Mao also had a fellow countryman, Peng Junbao, who was famous for his gold and silver craftsmanship. There were also countless unknown lacquer masters.
Documents from the Ming Dynasty record the gifts given in the seventh year of Yongle (1407): "One thousand taels of silver, seventy ingots, ten pieces of brocade..."
The composition of this box is precise, the depiction is delicate, and the image is lifelike, just like an exquisite relief painting.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the production of lacquerware was highly developed. Official workshops produced numerous types of utensils for use in the palace, with rich shapes, few changes in techniques, and complex decorations.
The craftsmanship and technology of your ancient lacquerware are constantly developing and regressing, striving for excellence.
The flower branches and leaves I carved can roll freely, the craftsmanship is exquisite, and they strongly express the majestic and noble characteristics of the peony. They are the masterpieces of a generation of masters.
We divide our work carefully and produce excellent lacquerware, especially lacquer products.
The colors of the lacquer decorations are the same, and can be divided into red, yellow, green, white, cai, rhinoceros, etc. Red-painted utensils are rare.
Apart from this, there is no saying that the production of lacquerware in your country is more popular in the south than in the north.
The former Yang Ming added in the annotation: "The Tang system is as follows, and the sword technique is slow and sharp, which is beyond the reach of the predecessors. When the yellow brocade is buried in the ground, the brocade is less like a thin hook cloud, which is slightly different from the picking method since Yang Mao.
.”
Beihu Xiangzhou was the smallest lacquerware producing area in the Tang Dynasty. There are no records of lacquerware tribute to the imperial court in the Tang Dynasty documents.
The withered lacquer mentioned later is not the most important type of lacquerware craft.
Zhang Cheng's carved red peony plate has a thick layer of lacquer and carved large and small shriveled flowers.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, a small amount of high-quality and low-priced porcelain was fired, which gradually reduced the craftsmanship of lacquerware;
It reflects the superb level of "exquisite craftsmanship" in the lacquer craftsmanship, and its gorgeous and graceful artistic style is shocking and amazing.
Just as Yang Ming of the Ming Dynasty praised it in "Painting Record·Preface", "Thousands of texts are all worth understanding."
The color of lacquerware is red. Volume 153 of "History of the Song Dynasty" records state sacrifices and rewards. Red lacquer is rarely used in daily use in the palace, and there is no clear law prohibiting red lacquer. Withered lacquer appeared in the Tang Dynasty, in "Painting and Decoration Records"
Not recorded in detail.
In the Ming Dynasty, the Yongle red wares were also deeply loved by Emperor Qianlong. The Palace Museum in Shendu has a round box with a red waterfall view and a poem written by Qianlong, praising the beauty of the Yongle red wares.
Therefore, from ancient times to today, it is also a process from bad to bad.
Mr. Wang Shixiang made a small summary of the lacquerware of the Ming and Qing Dynasties based on "Painting and Decoration Records" written by Huang Cheng in the late Ming Dynasty.
Their swordsmanship is thick and round, just as the "Painting and Decoration Record" commented that "the car instrument is made with a hidden front and a lake, hidden roundness, slender and rough, and no brocade pattern."
According to "Jiaxing Prefecture Chronicles": "Zhang Cheng, born in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, was from Yanghui, Xitang, Jiaxing Prefecture. Tihong is the most unknown."
Emperor Yongle gave the red lacquer to King Neon eight times as valuable gifts.
Even though those works have been passed down to this day, they are still thickly painted and as bright as new.
According to the "Ming Huidian" records, at least 5,000 painters came to Beijing to serve in shifts at a time.
These famous or unknown lacquer craftsmen pushed the lacquer craftsmanship to a peak in the Yuan Dynasty.
The craftsmanship level of the Yuan Dynasty lacquerware was lower than that of the Song Dynasty.
Volume 7 of "Zhi Zheng Ji" of the Yuan Dynasty praises the lacquerware produced by the inner government with gold and silver as the basis.
This is Zhang Minde's only unique piece handed down from generation to generation and is extremely precious.
Zhang Cheng, a native of the Yuan Dynasty, was the most famous in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the most remarkable achievements were made in lacquer painting, with numerous famous craftsmen emerging in a dazzling array of colors.
However, the actual lacquerware of the Tang Dynasty is extremely rare. Before the Song Dynasty, Hangzhou, Wenzhou and Fuzhou in the southeast became emerging lacquerware centers, which were famous for their lacquerware.
This can be regarded as the anti-counterfeiting label of the craftsmen at that time.
For example, the types of lacquerware during the Yang Mao period include single-color lacquerware, piled lacquerware, gold-plated lacquerware, gold-plated lacquerware, and withered lacquerware.
Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, was obsessed with lacquer products and set up a palace lacquerware workshop in the Orchard Factory in Beijing.
First, there are 14 categories in total: one (single) color lacquerware, cover lacquer, painting, gold tracing, lacquer stacking, lacquer filling, withering, mother-of-pearl, rhinoceros skin, red, rhinoceros, color, gold, and treasure inlay.
The lacquerware collected by the lacquerware collector Chen Wenzhe saw truly showed the characteristics of lacquerware from various eras.
Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, porcelain has replaced pottery, bronze ware, lacquer ware, etc. as daily utensils. At the same time, innovative lacquer techniques have been introduced one after another.
The lacquer work was directed by Zhang Cheng's son Zhang Degang, who gathered a group of skilled craftsmen.
They made important contributions to promoting the development of lacquer art in the Yuan Dynasty and wrote a dark page in the history of lacquer craftsmanship in our country.
The Qing Dynasty Collection brings together Yang Mao and fine lacquerware from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
It can be seen that the imperial lacquerware workshops of the Ming Dynasty did not have a considerable scale, which also reflects the important position of tick red in lacquerware.
One-color lacquerware was the most popular in the Song Dynasty. The painted lacquerware that was popular during the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties was transformed into pure single-color lacquerware, showing the aesthetic taste of the same era.
The 153 volumes of "History of the Song Dynasty" record state sacrifices, rewards and gifts, and the daily use of red lacquer in the palace. Moreover, the court did not have a clear law prohibiting red lacquer.
He also had a low evaluation of the lacquer painting in the Ming and Qing Dynasties as "it was combined with the changes in decoration, ushering in the thousands of lacquerwares".
During the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, lacquerware penetrated into all aspects of social life;
The classic lacquerware of that period was either a white peony plate with a double phoenix pattern or a begonia plate, or a white peony plate with a peacock pattern.