Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1629 Over the Wall

Famous painters painted and famous masters fired the enamels, based on the emperor's artistic taste and aesthetic characteristics, and even the emperor and princes personally supervised the work. When all conditions were ripe, the masters of art would condense the entire landscape of layers upon layers of mountains into the center of a small bowl, or reproduce a myriad of colorful flowers on the outer wall of a small bottle. The enamel painting art of the Yongzheng Dynasty reached its highest peak in history with its smooth and elegant powder and ingenious craftsmanship.

Among all porcelain products, the one with the highest requirements for craftsmanship is the small cup.

During the reigns of Emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng, the regulations on the standards for enamel cups were very strict. For example, the bottom inscription had to be the highest level four-character inscription certified by the royal family, i.e., "Made by the Emperor Kangxi", "Made in the Year of Kangxi", "Made by the Emperor Yongzheng", and "Made in the Year of Yongzheng" in two lines of blue Song-style characters in double frames.

The enameled porcelain with this kind of mark indicates that its ingredients, patterns, painting, inscriptions, writing, re-firing and other processes were all completed in the Wuying Hall or the Yangxin Hall of the Palace Workshop under the emperor's nose, which shows how much importance it received. The grade of the products produced was of course the highest. Therefore, this kind of mark has another nickname, called "palace material mark".

The Yongzheng cup has an elegant pattern on one side and a spacious pattern on the other. The spacious pattern is decorated with poems, usually written by Dai Lin, a famous porcelain calligraphy master at the time. His calligraphy is excellent. At the same time, there is a red and white "welcoming seal" above the poem and a "ground seal" below the poem.

These chapters are not drawn randomly. When painting bamboo, the words "Binran" and "Gentleman" are used; when painting landscapes, the words "Mountain High" and "Water Long" are used; when painting phoenixes, the word "Phoenix Cai" is used; when painting plum blossoms, the word "First Spring" is used; when painting flowers and plants, the words "Beauty", "Four Seasons" and "Changchun" are used.

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 actually be called large cups or small bowls. In fact, on the work file of the inner workshop, they have an accurate name - clock.

The bowl has a wide mouth, deep curved wall, and low ring foot. One side of the outer wall is painted with swaying green willows and dots of red apricots. In one bowl, two swallows are perched on the treetops as if whispering, while in the other bowl, one swallow flies and the other rests, reflecting each other. The two bowls have different movements of the swallows and the layout of the willows and apricots. On the other side of the outer wall, the two lines "Jade scissors pass through the flowers, and the colorful clothes return with the moon" are written in ink. The lines are cut from the neck couplet of the seven-character regulated verse "An Inscribed Fan in Response to the Order" by Shen Shixing of the Ming Dynasty. There are three red seals with the words "Beautiful" before the lines, and "Four Seasons" and "Eternal Spring" after them. The bottom of the vessel has two lines of blue Song-style double-framed inscriptions with "Made in the Yongzheng Period".

This is a standard large-door Yongzheng enameled porcelain clock, which can be used as a wine vessel or a tea vessel. This porcelain clock has one biggest feature, it looks like a branch of apricot blossom extending from the outer wall of the clock, over the rim of the cup, and into the clock, with a few flower buds dotted on the inner wall, which is extremely cute.

This is a characteristic of Qing Dynasty porcelain. It was rarely used during the Yongzheng period. It was called "over the wall branch."

Therefore, the correct name of this porcelain should be called "Qing Yongzheng Enamel-Painted Porcelain Clock with Apricot Blossoms, Willows and Swallows on the Wall".

However, in most auction catalogs, the word "clock" can easily cause misunderstanding among non-experts, and many of them are directly changed to "bowl" or "cup".

The shape of the other bell is exactly the same as Liu Yan's, but the pattern has changed to several clumps of dwarf bamboo and red and white plum blossoms. On the other side of the outer wall, the poem "Lightly shining on the water of the valley, covering the lower Yaotai" is written in ink, which is from the first couplet of the five-character regulated verse "Plum" by Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty.

There is a seal with "Xianchun" before the poem, and three seals with white characters "Shougu" and "Xiangqing" after it. The bottom of the vessel has a double-framed mark with two lines of blue Song-style characters "Yongzheng Nianzhi".

Zhou Zhi's heart couldn't help but move. In the archives of the Imperial Household Department that he had read, there was an imperial decree from Emperor Yongzheng, which showed that Emperor Yongzheng was particularly fond of plum and bamboo themes.

However, the artifact at that time was a pair of "large bamboo and wax plum bowls". The record reads: "On April 17th, the ninth year of Yongzheng's reign, Hai Wang, the general manager of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, brought out a pair of white porcelain bowls, and was ordered to paint green bamboo on most of the bowls, and to inscribe Dai Lin's selected poems on the other half. The base should be either the original color with green bamboo, or light red, or brown with enamel as appropriate. I decree this. On August 14th, the green bamboo bowls with poems were painted." In addition to bamboo and wax plum, there are four blue-tailed tits in the woods. Like the previous porcelain clock, there are also a few red and white plum blossoms "flying over the wall", and this time, there is also a flying blue-tailed tit.

He placed the two porcelain clocks in front of the four Ming Dynasty porcelain cups that An Siyuan loved so much: "Sir, take a look at this pair."

Chengyao Doucai and Yonggong enamel are the two pinnacles of Chinese painted porcelain. As expected, An Siyuan's eyes immediately fell on the pair of porcelain clocks: "Enamel?"

Whether it is the three-dimensional realism of the painting style, the exquisite and ingenious techniques, the richness of the colors and the complexity of the transitions, Yongzheng enamel is obviously more in line with the aesthetic tastes of foreigners.

The colors used on this pair of porcelain clocks are extremely delicate. Take the green bamboo for example. The tip, belly and bottom of each bamboo leaf are made up of three colors of green respectively, and the transition is very natural.

The bamboo pole is also divided into a shady side and a sunny side, and through color transition, a three-dimensional cylindrical look is created.

Each bamboo leaf and each bamboo pole has different shades of color, which ultimately form a picture that is both rich in layers and unified and harmonious. It fully demonstrates the profound understanding and exquisite craftsmanship of the use of colors by the painter who designed the sketchbook and the porcelain worker who copied the painting.

"In fact, I have always been very curious," An Siyuan took a porcelain clock and placed it in his hand, feeling the micro-carving marks on the picture on the porcelain clock: "What kind of person can calm down and create such a beautiful work of art."

This is also a very important feature of enamel porcelain. Shallow engraving marks are 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. The second is that these marks can "lock" the color material between the two edge marks, achieving the "filling color" effect mentioned in "Nan Yao Notes".

Because of the "locking edge" feature, the color material can be applied relatively thickly. The colored material on the porcelain fired in this way will be slightly raised from the surface of the object, forming a bas-relief effect, making the picture more lifelike.

This is also one of the reasons why the top-quality official kiln porcelain is so sought after. It is extremely difficult to imitate, there are far fewer fakes, and it is relatively easy to identify. Any slightly trained player can identify it.

In the jargon, this is called "opening the door wide."

An Siyuan's attention was immediately attracted by the pair of enameled porcelain clocks, while Zhou Zhi continued to study the remaining three Qianlong cups.

In the late Qianlong period, enamel began to decline. After the middle period of the so-called prosperous era of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, the social and economic situation began to show a downward trend. In the late Qianlong period, the national treasury was increasingly depleted. Due to the lack of copper, the national treasury even had to hand over a large number of copperplate movable type left over from the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties in the Wuying Hall, as well as the copper gallbladders in public porcelain, to the mint to mint coins in order to meet the urgent needs.

The enamel painting was expensive and time-consuming to make, so even Emperor Qianlong, who was known as the "Ten Perfect Man", had to give it up with reluctance.