Chapter 1629 Branches crossing the wall
Painting by famous hands and firing by famous masters are based on the emperor's artistic taste and aesthetic characteristics. Even the emperor and princes personally supervised the work. After all conditions are mature, the art masters Or the entire mountainous landscape is condensed into the inside of a small bowl, or the colorful flowers are reproduced on the outer wall of a small bottle. The pink, elegant and uncanny craftsmanship brought the enamel painting art of the Yongzheng Dynasty to the highest peak in history.
Among all porcelains, the one with the highest craftsmanship requirements is the small cup.
During the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties, the regulations on the format of enamel cups were very strict. For example, the base model must be the highest four-character base model certified by the royal family, that is, "Kangxi" with two lines of blue material and Song fonts in two square boxes. "Imperial system", "Kangxi year system", "Yongzheng imperial system", "Yongzheng year system" four-character inscriptions.
Enamel porcelain with this kind of mark indicates its ingredients, patterns, paintings, inscriptions, inscriptions, re-firing and other processes, all of which are made in the palace's Wuying Hall or Yangxin Hall. It was completed under the emperor's nose, which shows the importance it received, and the items produced were of course of the highest grade. Therefore, this type of model also has another name, called "palace material model".
Moreover, the picture of the Yongzheng cup is elegant on one side and sparse on the other. The sparse side is accompanied by a poem, which is usually written by Dai Lin, a very famous porcelain calligraphy expert at that time. The calligraphy is excellent. At the same time, the verses are also accompanied by Zhu Wen and Bai Wen's "" "Welcome to the first chapter", with "landing chapter" at the bottom of the back
These chapters are not random descriptions. Whenever you draw bamboos, you use "Binran" and "Junzi"; when you draw landscapes, you use "山高" and "水长"; when you draw phoenixes, you use "Fengcai". "; when painting plum blossoms, use "Xianchun"; when painting flowers and plants, use "Beauty", "Four Seasons", and "Changchun".
If the flowers and plants are yellow and red, they are often paired with "Jincheng" and "Xuying".
The two cups in front of Zhou Zhi now can be said to be large cups or small bowls. In fact, there is an accurate name on the work stall in the inner workshop - bell.
It has a wide mouth, deep curved walls, and low round feet. One side of the outer wall is painted with swaying green willows and dots of red apricots. In one bowl, two swallows were sitting on the treetops as if whispering, while in the other bowl, the swallows were flying and perching, reflecting each other's beauty. The dynamics of the swallows and the layout of the willows and apricots in the two bowls have their own changes. On the other side of the outer wall, there are two sentences written in ink: "Jade cuts through flowers, and neon clothes return with the moon." The verses are cut from the neck couplet of the seven-character rhyme poem "Ying Zhi Ti Fan" written by Shen Shixing in the Ming Dynasty. There are "Beauty" in front of the poem and "Four Seasons" and "Changchun" in the back, a total of three red seals. The bottom of the vessel has a two-line square frame with "Yongzheng Year System" in Song font in blue material.
This is a standard Yongzheng enamel porcelain clock with a large opening. It can be used as a wine vessel or a tea vessel. This porcelain clock also has one of the biggest features. It looks like an apricot flower extending from the outer wall of the clock over the rim of the cup. After entering the clock, there are a few flower buds dotted on the inner wall, which is very cute.
This is a feature of Qing Dynasty porcelain. It was rarely used in the Yongzheng Dynasty. It has a name called "Guoqiangzhi."
So the correct name of this porcelain should be called "Qing Yongzheng enamel porcelain clock with wall branches, apricot blossoms, willows and swallows".
However, in most auction brochures, this "clock" can easily cause misunderstandings by non-experts, and many of them are directly changed to "bowl" or "bowl".
The shape of the other porcelain bell is exactly the same as Liu Yan's, but the pattern has changed to several clusters of dwarf bamboos and red and white plum blossoms. The other side of the outer wall is written in ink with the poem "lightness shines on the stream, covering the Yaotai", which comes from the first couplet of the five-character poem "Plum" by Du Mu in the Tang Dynasty.
There are "Xian Chun" in front of the poem, and there are three red seals in white inscriptions "Shou Gu" and "Xiang Qing" at the end. The bottom of the vessel has a two-line square frame with "Yongzheng Year System" in Song font in blue material.
Zhou Zhi's heart couldn't help but move. There was a decree from Yongzheng in the archives of the Construction Office that he had seen, indicating that Emperor Yongzheng was particularly fond of the theme of plum and bamboo.
However, the utensils at that time were a pair of "large Tianzhu wax plum bowls". The record reads: "On April 17, the ninth year of Yongzheng's reign, Hai Wang, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, took out a pair of white porcelain bowls and ordered: Most of the bowl's surface is painted with green bamboo, and the other half is painted with verses selected by Dai Lin and inscribed on it. The ground seal may be in its original color with green bamboo, or in light color. Use red or brown to match the enamel. This is a green bamboo bowl painted on August 14th. In addition to the bamboo plums, there are four blue-tailed tits in the forest, just like the previous porcelain clock. , there were also a few red and white plum blossoms "crossing the wall", and this time there was also a blue-tailed tit flying across the wall.
Place the two porcelain clocks in front of the four Ming Dynasty porcelain cups that Ellsworth loves: "Sir, look at this pair."
Cheng kiln fighting color and Yonggong enamel are the two pinnacles of Chinese painted porcelain. Sure enough, An Siyuan's eyes immediately fell on the pair of porcelain clocks: "Enamel color?"
Whether it is The three-dimensional realism of the painting style, the exquisite and ingenious techniques, the rich use of colors, and the complexity of excess, Yongzheng enamel painting is obviously more in line with the aesthetics of foreigners.
The colors used on this pair of porcelain clocks are extremely delicate. Take green bamboo as an example. The tip, belly and bottom of each bamboo leaf are composed of three kinds of green, and the transition is very subtle. of nature.
The bamboo poles are also divided into yin and yang sides, and through color transition, they create a three-dimensional cylindrical look.
Every bamboo leaf and bamboo pole has its own different shades of color, ultimately forming a picture that is both rich in layers and unified and harmonious, fully demonstrating the artist who designed the painting and the copying tool. The porcelain workers each have a deep understanding of color and exquisite craftsmanship.
"Actually, I have always been very curious." An Siyuan took a porcelain clock and put it in his hand, feeling the slightly carved knife marks on the picture on the porcelain clock: "What kind of person can calm down? Producing such exquisite handicrafts”
This is also a very important aspect of enamel colored porcelain. In order to achieve the most important feature, shallow carving traces were used to replace the blue and white outlines of the previous colorful porcelain. This has two advantages. The first is to make the work more realistic, and the second is that these traces can "lock" the color materials in two lines. Between the edge marks, the "color filling" effect mentioned in "Nanyao Notes" is achieved.
Because of the "locking edge", the color material can be applied relatively thickly. The color material on the porcelain fired in this way will slightly bulge against the surface of the vessel, forming a low relief. The effect makes the picture more lifelike.
This is also one of the reasons why top-quality official kiln porcelain is so sought after. It is extremely difficult to imitate and there are far fewer fakes. It is also less difficult to identify and can be identified by players with a little training.
In jargon, this is called "opening the door".
An Siyuan's mind was suddenly attracted by the pair of enamel porcelain clocks, while Zhou Zhi continued to study the remaining three Qianlong cups.
In the late Qianlong period, enamel began to decline. After the so-called prosperous ages of Kang, Yong, and Qian, the social and economic situation began to decline. In the late Qianlong period, the treasury's financial resources were gradually depleted. Due to the lack of copper, Wuying even had to be replaced. A large number of copper plate movable types and copper bladders in public porcelain were handed over to the money bureau to mint coins to meet urgent needs.
The enamel color was expensive, labor-intensive and time-consuming, so Qianlong, known as the "perfect old man", had to reluctantly part with it.