My system is not decent

Chapter 1915 Master Painter
During the period of the Three Kingdoms, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, the content of lacquerware decoration to express real life increased.

All kinds of birds, animals, grass and insects were included in paintings, and narrative content such as dance, music, banquets, hunting, and narration of characters began to appear more 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 production of lacquerware, which is expensive, labor-intensive, and time-slow, 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-off lacquerware, gold and silver lacquerware, and Luodian lacquerware inlaid with jewels dealt a heavy blow to lacquerware production.

This led to the rapid decline of the originally prosperous lacquerware manufacturing in the Tang Dynasty, and the variety of lacquerware was greatly reduced.

The decline of lacquerware has deeply hit those lacquer craftsmen who have devoted themselves to the lacquer art industry for a long time, especially those craftsmen who have always made lacquerware for the court in the past.

For the survival of itself and lacquerware, a kind of lacquerware that increases the thickness of lacquer and uses carving techniques for artistic expression came into being.

Thus formed a new art of lacquerware - carved lacquer.

The production of lacquerware in the Tang Dynasty gradually developed in the direction of gorgeous and rich handicrafts.

It is mainly manifested in the innovation of lacquer varieties and techniques, the prevalence of gold and silver flat off, the development of mother-of-pearl inlays, and the emergence of new techniques such as carved lacquer.

Lacquerware in the Tang Dynasty reached an unprecedented level, and it was piled with thick lacquer to form raised patterns;
Mother-of-pearl ware cut from shells, carved with threads, and inlaid with patterns on the lacquered surface;
A gold and silver flatware inlaid with gold and silver flowers.

The craftsmanship surpasses the previous generation, the engraving and chiseling are exquisite, and combined with the lacquer craftsmanship, it has become a handicraft representing the style of the Tang Dynasty.

Tihong lacquerware also appeared in the Tang Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty was an era of elegance and creativity.

The elegance of the people of the Song Dynasty lies not only in reciting poems and painting, drinking wine and tea, but also in the life of art, and in the unique understanding and focus on the color of a piece of lacquerware.

As an art form with color as the main means of expression, Song Dynasty lacquerware has always been known for its freshness, elegance, and simplicity.

Its most notable feature is reflected in the application of color.

The craft of painting lacquer in the Song Dynasty was quite mature, and crafts such as rhinoceros skin, mother-of-pearl mother-of-pearl, plain paint, carved lacquer, and gold-cut gold all made great progress.

Among them, plain painting and carved lacquer have the highest achievements.

In terms of reflecting the style of the times, plain-painted lacquerware is the most widely used, and it can be regarded as the mainstream craft of the Song Dynasty, leading an era with a minimalist and elegant style.

Plain painting, also known as plain lacquer or one-color lacquer, began in the Song Dynasty. It used monochromatic lacquer to decorate utensils without any auxiliary decoration such as pattern drawing or carving.

Plain lacquerware no longer pursues bright colors and complicated shapes.

It changes from complex to simple, and the lines change from subtle to simple.

The color changes from gorgeous and gorgeous to simple and simple, and the shape changes from plump and tall to small and exquisite.

Through the perfect fit of color and shape, a harmonious and unified elegant realm is created in minimalism, presenting the beauty of simplicity and subtlety.

The plain-painted lacquerware of the Song Dynasty abandoned the wildness, boldness and elegance of the previous dynasty, and pursued a calm and pure artistic thinking.

At the same time, under the influence of Song Dynasties, lacquer ware artists integrated the spirit of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism into lacquer ware creation.

By embodying the spiritual pursuit of the harmony between man and nature and the supremacy of nature, they demonstrate the peaceful life attitude and rigorous and implicit aesthetic orientation of the Song people.

There are many types of plain painted lacquerware in the Song Dynasty, including cups, plates, bowls, boxes, cups, and doves, covering all aspects of life.

The color of this kind of lacquerware is mostly black, such as the black lacquer Linghua cup in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the red lacquer Tianmutai in the Southern Song Dynasty.

These lacquer ware are simple in shape, warm in color, simple and subtle in design but full of tension, presenting the unique charm of Song Dynasty lacquer ware.

Of course, the elegance of Song Dynasty lacquerware is not limited to plain painted lacquerware, and other crafts such as carved lacquer and gold-plated are also excellent.

According to Mr. Wang Shixiang's textual research, gold-cutting wares began in the Western Han Dynasty and became popular in the Song Dynasty.

Jinjin refers to carving fine patterns on vermilion and black lacquer surfaces, and then embossing gold powder to form golden patterns.

Jinjin lacquer ware is bright in color, finely decorated, exquisite in shape and brilliant, showing a completely different style from plain paint ware.

For example, in 1978, the red lacquer unearthed in Wujin, Changzhou, Jiangsu, with golden lotus petals and flower patterns, can be called the most exquisite "cosmetic box" in the Song Dynasty.

The dowry is made up of four parts: the cover, the plate, the middle and the bottom.

The mouth of the box is inlaid with a silver buckle, the surface is painted with vermilion lacquer, and the fine hooks are embellished with gold patterns.

Between the twelve edges of the wall are patterns of folded branches and flowers, and the cover is a picture of a lady spending summer, all of which are gold-cut.

This piece of lacquerware has reached a near-perfect level in terms of production, shape, decoration, and lacquer painting.

This piece of lacquerware and the other three gold-cut lacquer ware unearthed together are the earliest real gold-cut lacquerware that can be seen in China, representing the highest level of gold-cutting techniques in the Song Dynasty.

The rich variety of lacquerware was already commercialized in the Song Dynasty, and there was a special market for buying and selling.

In the "Surfing the River During the Qingming Festival" painted by Zhang Zeduan, a painter of the Northern Song Dynasty.There are shops selling lacquerware.

In the "Tokyo Menghualu" of the Northern Song Dynasty, Meng Yuanlao described that "Wenzhou Lacquerware Stores" can be seen everywhere in Bianliang City.

Wu Zimu of the Southern Song Dynasty also recorded in "Mengliang Lu" that there were many lacquer shops and lacquer shops in Lin'an at that time.

In "Song History·Shihuo Zhi", it is also recorded that lacquerware was traded in the government-run border trade place-Qianchang.

It can be seen that lacquerware in the Song Dynasty has been widely used as a commodity among the people, showing the characteristics of civilianization and practicality.

The Yuan Dynasty retained and continued the lacquerware craft of the Song Dynasty, and also innovated and changed in terms of techniques and styles.

In particular, the level of carved lacquer has reached a new height, and many highly skilled carved lacquer craftsmen have emerged, among which Zhang Cheng and Yang Mao in Jiaxing are the most famous.

Zhang Cheng and Yang Mao are from the same hometown. They are both good at carving lacquer.

They are outstanding representatives of famous lacquer craftsmen in the 14th century.

Zhang Cheng's works are thickly painted, finely carved, and rounded.

Its themes are mostly drawn from landscape figures, flowers and birds, such as the red mast pattern disc collected by the Palace Museum in Shendu.

There is also a round box with the picture of watching the waterfall with a red stick hanging from the collection of the National Museum, and a "Zhang Chengzao" needle-marked rhinoceros cloud pattern box collected by the Ontario Museum.

Yang Mao's choice of subject matter is similar to Zhang Cheng's, but both have their own merits in terms of technique and artistic treatment.

For example, for works with flowers as the theme, Yang Mao's lacquer is not as thick as Zhang Cheng's, and he pays more attention to details.

He used his skillful knife technique to draw negative lines on the smooth surface of flowers, showing the tendons and veins of the flowers, showing their beauty and naturalness.

Zhang Cheng used the thickness of the lacquer to express the protruding edge of the petals and the front and back folding of the leaves, showing their robustness and fullness.

(End of this chapter)