God-level Golden Hand

Chapter 1120 Longquan Kiln Avalokitesvara Shrine

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A Guanyin niche from a Longquan kiln.

The name of Longquan Kiln, I believe even laymen have heard of it, it is definitely a wonderful work that cannot be avoided in the history of porcelain, and it is also one of the pearls among many porcelain categories.

However, the fame is great, but if you ask everyone to talk about the definition and characteristics of Longquan Kiln, it is estimated that most people will be embarrassed.

Why, because Longquan kiln is famous for its celadon, and there are quite a lot of varieties of celadon. In addition, Longquan kiln began in the Five Dynasties period, prevailed in the Song and Yuan dynasties, and became extinct in the Kangxi period. That is to say, from the Kangxi period, Longquan kiln Porcelain has never been produced, so there are not many Longquan porcelains that can be completely preserved. Compared with the porcelains of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the amount of Longquan porcelains in the world is quite rare.

There are few real objects in the world, and there are more porcelains of the same category, and the ribbons are popular, so most people only hear the name of the porcelain of Longquan Kiln but not the porcelain.

Of course, the low quantity mentioned here is only relative. In fact, the shadow of Longquan porcelain can often be seen on the market, but most of Longquan porcelain are quite ordinary, in other words, there are very few high-quality products.

And the Avalokitesvara Buddhist altar that Chen Xiaoyan just took out can be regarded as a masterpiece in Longquan Kiln.

The reason why a piece of porcelain can be called a fine product, firstly, the shape must be complete; secondly, the craftsmanship must be top-notch.After having these two elements, the more other value-added factors attached to the porcelain, the better, such as relatively rare shapes, exquisite paintings, novel themes, rich cultural connotations, and so on.

As for Buddhist niches, there is naturally nothing special in terms of subject matter and cultural connotation, so we can only work hard on the shape, craftsmanship, enamel, painting, and carving.

The characteristics of Chen Xiaoyan's Buddhist altar are very prominent in these aspects.

Let’s talk about the shape of the vessel first. The height of this Buddhist altar is [-] centimeters, which is relatively tall among the existing porcelain altars. This height alone is worth buying. After all, the larger the size of porcelain, the more difficult it is to fire, and the easier it is to be destroyed. Destruction of nature is becoming rarer and rarer. Rare things are more expensive, and large-sized things will naturally have a high price.

Moreover, the advantage of this Buddhist altar in terms of shape is not only the size, but the most prominent thing is the overall shape of the altar.

From a distance, this Buddhist altar looks a bit like a mountain carved with emeralds. Its shape is not a regular symmetrical shape. It looks like a sharp hill as a whole. The left and right sides are dotted with phoenixes, cranes, vases, auspicious clouds and exotic flowers and plants. Waiting for things, on the left and right of each of the three steps below, there are a pair of virgins and men, a pair of elephants, and a piece of lifelike waves. The waves are at the bottom, and above the waves are white elephants.

With these embellishments, the one in the middle is naturally Guanyin Bodhisattva.

The Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva in this altar is sitting, holding the seat with one hand, pinching the magic formula with the other, wearing a long skirt, inlaid with fine necklaces and other accessories, wearing a flower crown, with a light behind his head, and a dignified and peaceful face. , but the overall demeanor is a little casual, especially the one leg of Guanyin Bodhisattva is drooping under the altar. This shape looks similar to that of a housewife sitting on a kang, which makes the originally solemn Buddha statue a little more Intimacy.

This shape is cumbersome to say, but it is even more cumbersome to do. Let alone the carver, the most prominent thing is the design of this shape. You must know that in ancient times, it was difficult to design a Buddhist niche with such a unique style. But it is very high, in addition to requiring craftsmen to have a certain artistic creation ability, it also requires craftsmen to have a certain amount of courage, because it is a very risky thing for ordinary craftsmen in feudal society to innovate, especially when making religious crafts The risk is higher when you do it well. If you do it well, everyone will praise you, but if you don’t do it well, you will be labeled as "blasphemous" immediately.

Therefore, most of the religious handicrafts are mostly similar in shape. This is the most prominent in Buddhism. What Buddha wears, what clothes, what posture, what expression, and what expression are all in one set. Craftsmen only need to remember These features can then be used step by step to produce complete and well-regulated handicrafts. After a long time, there will be no innovations.

Of course, there is only a little innovation, not none at all.

This Avalokitesvara Buddhist altar is very bold in shape. First of all, it abandons the traditional symmetrical structure. Not only are the decorations on both sides of the altar completely asymmetrical, but even the three steps below the altar are not on the same level. The layout is patchwork, especially a pair of boys and girls, one standing on the back of a white elephant on the second floor, and the other standing on the waves of the third floor.

Applying such a layout to an altar that should be solemn should be bold.

The most daring part is the Guanyin Bodhisattva itself. The Guanyin Bodhisattva in this niche is in a sitting posture, but it is completely different from the common sitting posture. Instead, it uses a posture that ordinary people often use, with the left leg bent and the right Under the legs, the right leg is casually drooping directly in front of the seat, no matter how you look at it, there is a sense of leisure, which is completely different from the Bodhisattva Buddha in the impression of standing, sitting, and sitting.

However, it is precisely this layout that makes this Buddhist altar have a certain artistic value, rather than being a simple handicraft.

Therefore, the shape of this Buddhist altar has completely reached the standard of high-quality goods.

After talking about the type, let's talk about the craftsmanship.

Porcelain craftsmanship is nothing more than body, glaze, and firing. The most rare thing about the body is shaping. The common bottles and jars are good. The shaping of this kind of special-shaped porcelain depends entirely on carving, and the quality of the carver directly determines the shape. Whether this altar is good or bad, if the carver is not high-grade, then no matter how amazing the design is, it will be useless.

So how is the carving of this Buddhist altar?
Judging from Xu Jingxing's eyes, the carver has also reached the standard of high-quality goods. Although it is still a little worse than his current craftsmanship, it can be regarded as a rare good carver in Longquan kiln. The decorations are boys and girls, white elephants, sea waves and the most important bodhisattva, all of which are vividly carved. Although the fineness cannot be compared with wood carvings, jade carvings, stone carvings and other carvings, they can be regarded as among porcelain. It is the best work.

You must know that for this kind of porcelain that is carved first and then glazed, if the carcass is too finely carved, nothing can be seen clearly once the glaze is applied, so it is very necessary to make the carver thicker.

The key is to grasp a scale.

Obviously, the producer of this Buddhist altar had a good idea when he cut the knife, and the scale was very precise, which not only highlighted the exquisite carving work, but also did not affect the subsequent glazing process, which is not easy.

(End of this chapter)