Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1628 Enamel Bell

Because this pair of small cups is the product of the peak period of development of ancient Chinese porcelain, and they are the best among painted porcelain, enamel-colored.

Enamel color was first created in the late Kangxi period. Under the instruction of Emperor Kangxi, the metal-based enamel painting technique introduced from Europe was successfully transplanted to porcelain, and a new type of overglaze colored porcelain was created. It reached its peak during the Yongzheng period, and the output was the largest during the Qianlong period, but then it declined rapidly, and production was rare from the late Qianlong period.

Starting from the 19th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, the Forbidden City established an enamel workshop in the Wuying Hall. Then in the 57th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, it was moved to the Yangxin Hall. In the beginning, it mainly produced copper-based cloisonné enamel and single-body enamel.

The creation of enamel porcelain is closely related to Emperor Kangxi's love of painted enamel, as he was keen on Western technology and art.

In the 22nd year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, the Qing government abolished the maritime ban after unifying Taiwan Island. European metal-based painted enamelware, as precious handicrafts, began to be brought into Guangzhou by missionaries coming to China and presented as tribute to the imperial court.

These imported products were loved by the royal nobles and local dignitaries in Guangzhou for their exquisite painting techniques and gorgeous decorative styles. According to private letters between European missionaries and the Pope at that time, Emperor Kangxi was also very interested in this kind of foreign stuff and tried his best to make Chinese enamel craftsmen master this technology.

In the 49th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, Italian missionary Ma Guoxian came to China. From then on, he spent thirteen years in the capital as a Catholic missionary and a court painter of the Qing court.

In the 55th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, Ma Guoxian wrote back from Changchun Garden: "The emperor began to be fascinated by European enamel painting and tried his best to introduce it to the Imperial Household Department. After seeing the pigments for painting porcelain and several large enamelware brought from Europe, the emperor considered making some objects."

"The emperor ordered European painters to paint enamels. We considered that we would have to work and rest with those humble craftsmen from morning to night, so we made an excuse that we had never learned to paint enamels and were determined not to learn this art. We deliberately painted very poorly, so the emperor issued an order to stop. We were lucky enough to avoid becoming slaves."

However, Ma Guoxian's unwillingness did not mean that others were unwilling. Soon, as painters and enamel craftsmen from Guangzhou and Europe entered the inner court to participate in guiding the production of enamelware in the Imperial Household Department, and even operated it themselves, the production of metal-based painted enamelware began to flourish.

At that time, only two enamel craftsmen from Guangdong, three Westerners, two enamel craftsmen and two apprentices were recommended to enter the inner court by Yang Lin, the governor of Guangzhou.

When the enamel workshop of the Wuying Hall was transferred to the Yangxin Hall, an additional supervisor was appointed. Later, the French enamel artist Chen Zhongxin was summoned to the inner court to guide the production of enamelware.

With the joint efforts of Chinese and foreign craftsmen, the Enamel Workshop of the Imperial Household Department quickly mastered the firing technology of metal-based painted enamel and produced a large number of metal-based painted enamelware with a strong court flavor.

Since the porcelain firing technology of the Jingde Imperial Kiln Factory had reached a very high level at that time, especially the colorful porcelain fired at that time, which had a firm body, bright glaze and gorgeous colors, and the painting technique was similar to that of painted enamel, therefore, at the instruction of Kangxi, the enamel workshop of the Imperial Household Department began to try to transplant this technique to porcelain body.

This initiative was successful, and thus porcelain painted enamel, commonly known as enamel porcelain, was born.

After Emperor Yongzheng ascended the throne, his love for enamel in the palace was even greater than that of Emperor Kangxi. Not only did he strengthen management and supervision, but he also liked to personally participate in the specific design of the drawings.

During this period, Jingdezhen had a very powerful pottery supervisor, a ceramic artist named Tang Ying who made special contributions to the porcelain industry of the Qing Dynasty. The first step in producing enamel color is to select the body. The porcelain with perfect shape and pure white like snow is selected and transported to the capital for enamel firing. The Kangxi porcelain body painted enamelware needs to be fired from the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Factory, and then the enamel pattern is painted in the Imperial Workshop, and then it is fired in a low-temperature small kiln to form the so-called colored ground painted enamel porcelain.

Because the body quality is not good enough, the plain body is delivered, and yellow, carmine red, etc. must be used as the base, and then the pattern is painted. The painting method is also transplanted from copper-based enamel painting.

During Tang Ying's tenure, in addition to completing the task of firing porcelain, he was also responsible for providing high-quality white porcelain bodies to the inner palace enamel workshop.

The porcelain body supervised by Tang Ying is the pinnacle of enamel porcelain body, with the characteristics of being translucent in the light and as delicate as fat. It is much lighter and whiter than those of the previous Kangxi and the later Qianlong.

In Beijing, in the sixth year of Yongzheng's reign, Emperor Yongzheng's staunchest brother, Prince Yi Yunxiang, who was well-known as the Thirteenth Prince in major TV dramas in later generations, became the top official in charge of the lucrative position of the Imperial Household Department.

The Thirteenth Prince was indeed very capable. In the seventh year of Yongzheng's reign, the first innovation of enamelware was completed, solving the problem of coloring on high white glaze. From then on, enamel could be painted directly on high white glaze porcelain. Combined with the fact that the Jingde Imperial Kiln Factory had just developed and fired fine and flawless high white glaze porcelain, it allowed the craftsmen in the capital to give full play to their artistic creation, creating the possibility for greatly improving the artistic value of Yongzheng's enamel porcelain.

The last thing left is the issue of pigment.

During the Kangxi period and the early Yongzheng period, the Imperial Household Department was not able to refine enamel pigments on its own, so many colors had to be imported, and more colors could only be created through the mixing and blending of different pigments.

The color material refining plan finally successfully refined eighteen colors, which achieved a breakthrough in the production and firing of Yongzheng enamel porcelain.

On July 12, the sixth year of Yongzheng's reign, a letter from Yuanmingyuan was recorded in the Qing Palace's work files: On the tenth day of this month, Prince Yi handed over Western enamel materials: moon white, white, yellow, green, dark bright green, light blue, pine yellow, light bright green, black, a total of nine kinds. New enamel materials: soft white, fragrant color, light pine yellow, lotus root color, light green, sauce color, dark grape color, bronze color, pine yellow, a total of nine kinds.

Eighteen pigments in total.

Since enamel pigments did not contain red pigment, Emperor Yongzheng and Prince Yi continued to urge them to do so. Finally, under the research of Guangdong craftsman Pan Chun, they successfully developed a "pink-colored gold red copper material" made by adding gold to the colorant, and refined a pink enamel material.

The red color became more and more pure afterwards, and Yongzheng and Prince Yi must have been quite proud of this, because on the porcelain with red flower paintings during the Yongzheng period, one can definitely see two seals - "Jincheng" and "Xuying".

Because of the emperor's preference, painters of the court painting academy during the Yongzheng period were fully involved in the design of enamel porcelain, changing the pure pattern decoration of flowers without birds or birds without flowers in the Kangxi period, and presenting a new scene of green mountains, green waters, birds singing and flowers blooming. The layout and composition were taken from traditional Chinese paintings, integrating poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing. The enamel porcelain suddenly became delicate in painting and elegant in style.

Many of these painters are famous. During the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties, the famous ones include: Wang Yuanqi, Jiang Tingxi, Lang Shining, Leng Mei, Tang Dai, Gao Qipei, Yuan Jiang, Dong Bangda, Jin Tingbiao, Li Shizhuo, Shen Hui, Yuan Ying, Wang Jingming, Qian Weichen, etc.