My system is not decent

Chapter 1259 The Product of Reaching the Peak

The successful firing of flower-glazed porcelain shows that the porcelain-making artists of the Tang Dynasty have mastered the glaze preparation and complex glazing techniques.

However, the technology mastered in the Tang Dynasty has been lost until now.

Such things seem to be everywhere in the firing process of porcelain.

For example, Ru kiln porcelain, such as secret color porcelain, even Yuan blue and white, Xuande sapphire blue, ruby ​​red glaze, and Chenghua bucket color, etc., have all been lost.

Now that we have encountered it, we must record it in a small notebook. As long as we have time, Chen Wenzhe intends to burn this kind of Tang Dynasty Huajun again.

Now just to understand, there is definitely no time to re-fire, even if it is yellow glaze, Chen Wenzhe needs to wait, because what he is making now is not yellow glaze porcelain.

Or back to the yellow glaze, because the yellow glaze is the highest grade of porcelain in monochromatic glazed porcelain.

First of all, let's understand what is "color glaze"!
Color glaze, that is, the color of the glaze.

When making glazes, certain metal oxides, or materials, are added as colorants.

In different atmospheres of the kiln, due to the different color reactions of the colorants, the fired glazes also show different colors.

For example, copper is added to the glaze as a coloring agent, and the coloring reaction of copper is used in the oxidizing atmosphere of the kiln.

Copper gives the glaze a green color, from which porcelain with a green glaze is fired.

If the copper makes the glaze red, it will produce porcelain with a red glaze.

These are all colored glazes, so what is yellow glazed porcelain?
Yellow-glazed porcelain is to apply the glaze containing iron oxide to the porcelain body, and use the iron in the oxidizing atmosphere of the kiln to make the glaze appear yellow-brown or brown-red in color reaction.

It is also hesitation that the temperature is different, and porcelain with glaze colors such as yellow, brown, and red will be fired.

The presentation of specific colors can be achieved by adjusting the proportion of iron oxide in the glaze and the firing temperature.

Not to mention the firing temperature, then the content needs to be adjusted.

The higher the iron content, the darker the color!

Such as sauce-colored glaze; otherwise, it is light, such as yellow glaze.

Now Chen Wenzhe is making yellow ground enamel, not a series of yellow glazes. Therefore, after studying and understanding the production process of yellow glazes, Chen Wenzhe began to make Yongzheng yellow ground enamel colored porcelain.

Of course, now that he has studied and understood the production process of yellow glaze, he will definitely make a series of yellow glaze porcelain after completing the imitation of fine porcelain from the third dynasties of the Qing Dynasty.

This is the same as green glaze, red glaze, blue glaze and other glaze colors, and yellow glaze porcelain is the most noble variety among monochrome glazes, so it is naturally worthy of careful study.

Let’s not talk about the production of yellow glazed porcelain, let’s talk about the enamel color first!
The enamel color was first created in the late Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, and it was further developed during the Yongzheng period.

Enamel colored porcelain is a new variety of colored porcelain created by successfully transplanting the technique of painting enamel on copper body to porcelain body under the instruction of Emperor Kangxi in the late Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty.

The output during the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods was the largest, and there were few productions after Qianlong.

During the Qianlong period, the enamel-colored porcelain collected in the palace was once stored in the Duanning Hall. According to archives, there are more than 400 pieces.

According to the records of the court archives of the Qing Dynasty and the identification of the original box of the enamel-colored porcelain, the official name of the enamel-colored porcelain should be "painted enamel on a porcelain body".

Every piece of this kind of royal porcelain is a treasure, because these enamel-colored porcelains are works of art exclusively for the emperor and empress to enjoy, even in the palace, they are strictly controlled.

The whole production process is also striving for perfection, for example, the white porcelain body needed for making it is provided by Jingzhen Royal Kiln Factory.

After being transported to the palace, under the emperor's instruction, the enamel was made in the Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and it was carefully painted by the court painter!

Court scribes, inscribed poems and signatures!
Finally, it is put into the charcoal furnace and roasted at a temperature of about 600°C.

Throughout the three dynasties of the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi created it, Yongzheng carried it forward, and Qianlong made it reach its peak.

The enamel color of the Kangxi period is not as good as that of Yongzheng, so I won't talk about it.

During the Yongzheng period, many porcelains were at their peak.

It is not the pinnacle of the Qing Dynasty, but the pinnacle of the history of the whole world.

Not to mention other things, just talk about the color material of enamel color, which was solved during Yongzheng.

Enamel is a special kind of color material that is artificially fired. Before the sixth year of Yongzheng (1728), it had to rely on imports from Europe.

Six years after Yongzheng, the Qing Palace Manufacturing Office has been able to self-smelt more than 20 kinds of enamel materials.

And the variety of colors is more abundant than imported color materials.

This has enabled the production of enamel colored porcelain to develop by leaps and bounds.

Carmine, egg yolk and blue were mostly used as grounds for enamel-colored porcelain in the Kangxi period.

There is also a kind of unique utensils painted with enamel on Yixing purple sand tires.

The typical enamel colored porcelain of the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods is an art treasure combining poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing, and it is also the product of the peak period of my country's ancient colored porcelain craftsmanship.

Especially the enamel colored porcelain in the Yongzheng period is the peak of the peak.

And this can be said to be determined by Yongzheng's life and habits!

Emperor Yongzheng lived in the palace for a long time and never traveled around like Kangxi and Qianlong.

He lived deep in the palace, governed the country diligently, and only cared about the production of porcelain in his spare time.

But even so, he still asks in person every time, and when the officials and ministers give new ceramic styles, he looks at them personally.

In terms of decorative patterns, Emperor Yongzheng advocated "respectfully made styles in the inner court", and personally issued requirements for "elegance" and "meticulousness".

At the same time, Tang Dai, Dai Heng, He Jinkun, Tang Zhenji and Castiglione Castiglione were also appointed to make draft samples for painting enamelware.

It is under these requirements, or under the influence, that the Yongzheng enamel and colored porcelain are all beautiful.

As far as the decorative patterns of enamel colored porcelain are concerned, the four elements of poetry, calligraphy, painting, and printing are rarely seen outside the palace, so they can be called a model of "styles made by the inner court".

Due to Yongzheng's personal preferences, the style of porcelain in the Yongzheng period was gradually determined.

Pastel, enamel and ink color porcelain all have extremely high artistic value.

From the works handed down from generation to generation, we can see the ultimate pursuit of Emperor Yongzheng:
Smart and beautiful shape, exquisite picture, soft and elegant color, strict and standardized style.

The enamel flower and bird vase looted from the Old Summer Palace is now in the Royal Palace of Fontainebleau in France.

Just from this piece of porcelain, we can see the exquisiteness of Yongzheng porcelain.

No wonder Ji Yuansou, a picky ceramic critic in the late Qing Dynasty, said: "Yongzheng official kiln, large and small dishes, white and frosty, both light and strong. There are several colorful flowers on the painting, each of which is swaying and swaying. The posture and brushwork are not rigid. The flowers are made of eggplant, purple, egg yolk, sky and blue, which are beyond the reach of the Qianlong Dynasty."

While expressing his emotion, Ji Yuansou also used poetic language to describe what he saw, the best porcelain body painting enamel in Yongzheng official kiln porcelain:
"The whiteness of the landfill is as white as snow, which is unique; it is as thin as an egg curtain, and you want to fly when you whisper it, and when it is illuminated by the sun or the light, you can distinguish the color of the strokes on the front from the back. , the flowers are dewy, bright and slender, the butterflies have downy hairs, and their necks are erected, these are the three uniques; the sketches are extremely finely inscribed in Kaizhuan, as thin as a fly’s head, the four uniques.”

Different pictures, same beauty, but it's a pity that this piece of porcelain is in France!
(End of this chapter)