14 Chinese Art T


o celebrate the 60th anniversary of cultural relations between China and France, the Musée


des Art Décoratifs in Paris is showing a collection of 200 Chinese decorative works of art and fashion accessories. Luxury items made specifically for the West, including porcelain, furniture, lacquer, paintings, and figurines, were shipped out of the port of Canton by foreign traders to meet demand in the West, however, luxury goods made for China’s domestic market also found their way to other parts of Asia and Europe to be displayed in the homes of merchant families and elite society. Te techniques used by the highly


skilled Chinese craftsmen made it possible to enhance and decorate many materials, such as jade and other hard stones, to create delicate porcelain, design attractive cloisonné and other painted enamels objects, and cast eye-catching bronzes. Other craftsmen created lacquerware, a range of glassware, and decorative accessories, such as head ornaments made of feathers. Te works in this exhibition illustrate these wide range of techniques and the creativity used to produce such objects from the 13th century to the end of the 19th century, through the Yuan (1279-1368), Ming (1368-1644), and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties. Te collection on show not only


represents the history of the museum’s collection, but also the sources of inspiration used by the artists, craftsmen, and manufacturers for more than 200 years, from the early craze for Chinoiserie that also influenced European design through to Art Nouveau. Te exhibition is divided into seven


sections with the exhibition running throughout the various permanent galleries of the museum. It starts in the Jewellery Gallery with a display dedicated to Chinese head ornaments, showing the refinement of Chinese goldsmithing alongside the art of feather work that commonly used kingfisher


feathers to show the


wearer’s wealth and status. Other works include belt buckles created in various precious materials such as jade,


turquoise, gold, and bronze


inlaid with silver and gold. In the Medieval Gallery are objects


from antiquity, including containers and other


ritual objects made in


bronze, as well as glazed terracotta works that are evidence of the importance of luxury since antiquity, for example, from the Shang dynasty (circa 1500-1050 BC)


to the Han


(206 BC-AD 220 AD). Also displayed are porcelains and cloisonné that illustrate the exchange of techniques and luxury objects on the trade routes linking Europe, the Orient, and China. In the museum’s galleries dedicated


to decorative arts from the 17th and 18th centuries, is a selection of objets d’art


and literati objects in semi-


precious stones such as rock crystal, nephrite of various colours, lapis lazuli, and agate, from which craftsmen were able to create brush pots, brush washers, drinking cups, incense sets, and vases – all refined objects made for scholars and the wealthy classes in China. Chinese cloisonné and Canton


enamels also share the same gallery, comparing the different techniques used to produce the objects. As are several monochrome ceramics to illustrate the various decorative techniques used on porcelain – a


white double-gourd vase with incised decoration is presented next to a pair of


cinnabar double-gourd


known as Beijing lacquer. Carved lacquerware was developed


during the Tang dynasty (618-907) in the south of China, originating in the provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan, gaining wider popularity during the Song dynasty (960-1279).


It was


Cloisonné box, Ming dynasty, marks and period of Xuande (1426-1436), copper alloy and gilding © Les Arts Décoratifs / Jean Tholance


during this period that the first techniques to develop a thick lacquer coating were adopted. Te style for this new decorative technique was known as guri, from the Japanese word for the ring-pommel of a sword, the same motifs were already used in the decoration of metalware, and is now often called ‘the sword-pommel pattern’ in English. Landscape and other scenery also


started to appear on lacquerware during this period, such as groups of people depicted in a classical landscape, or a garden setting, derived mainly from existing Chinese paintings and illustrations. Te other main types of subject matter were birds and foliage that usually filled the whole carved area, or just flowers and foliage treated in the same way. Dragons and phoenixes also began to appear in this style, which became prominent in the Ming-dynasty (1368-1644)


imperial workshops. Te first lacquerware carving ASIAN ART | SEPTEMBER 2024 | #AsianArtPaper | asianartnewspaper | asianartnewspaper | Meiping vase, Yuan dynasty


(1279-1368), Ming dynasty (1368- 1644), second half of the


14th century, cloisonné enamels on copper alloy with gilding


workshops in Beijing were opened during this time, under the patronage of the court. Lacquer was among the luxury products often given by the emperor as diplomatic or political gifts, or to the subsidiary courts of princes of the imperial house. Te Orchard Factory, founded circa 1416 in Beijing, imported workers from the south,


skilled craftsmen from


Jiaxing in Zheijang province, as well as other workers from Yunnan and Sichuan. James CY Watt, in his essay in


East Asian Lacquer, Te Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, writes, ‘It was during the Ming period the dragon became an important imperial symbol, very often appearing


Asian Art Newspaper vases, Skilled


craftsmen had a wide range of techniques at their disposal


Belt buckle, Qing dynasty


(1644-1912), 18th century, gilded bronze, turquoise.


Photos © Les Arts Décoratifs / Christophe Dellière


LUXURY OBJECTS FROM CHINA


Hair ornament, Qing dynasty (1644-1912), 19th century Kingfisher feathers, leather, metal © Decorative Arts / Jean Tholance


on lacquer from the imperial


workshops for the use of the court, or made to be given by the emperor. One distinct trend in official ware of the early 15th century was the increased use of symbols of imperial status, such as


Postcard showing the original Bastille Metro in Paris, designed in Chinese Pavilion style by Hector Guimard, first opened in 1900. This station was demolished in 1962


dragons and phoenixes. Gradually all other motifs came subordinate to the dominant dragon, and so remained for the duration of the Ming period.’ During the Qing dynasty,


the


emperor Kangxi set up imperial workshops in the palace precincts to create luxury objects for the court that also included lacquerware. Other commercial workshops, away from the palace, produced lacquerware in order to supply the needs of wealthy clients in China, as well as the demands of the export trade. Many lacquered screens were exported to Europe, Japan, and India with the screens often being transhipped in south India, where the screens, in 18th-century Europe, were often called Coromandel ware. Te


craze for Chinoiserie in


Europe was at its height in the 18th century. A room in the exhibition is dedicated to this style and presents a selection of porcelain against a background of lacquer panels with gold decoration. Another display shows the great diversity of porcelain techniques used in China, grouping the works by colour palette and decoration, placing porcelains produced for the imperial court alongside those intended for export to Europe, including some pieces intended for the use of the then King of France, Louis XV (1710-1774). Tis style in the UK, in particular,


was deemed to suit light, feminine spaces: wealthy women’s bedrooms, dressing rooms, and drawing rooms in stately homes were


frequently


hung with expensive, hand-painted Chinese wallpaper from Canton and furnished with genuine Chinese porcelains along with European attempts to follow the trend. For example, the popular Willow Pattern (still used today) is first believed to have been created by Tomas Minton for Tomas Turner’s


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