Looks Famille: Natalie Merchant on what makes famille verte such an attractive ceramics style

Looks Famille

The rich history of Chinese ceramics dates back thousands of years with many of the very finest pieces in the famille verte style, writes Natalie Marchant

For thousands of years, Asian porcelain and especially Chinese pottery has beguiled all those who see it and appreciate it for its intricacy, detail, artwork, quite extraordinary technical expertise and, perhaps most importantly, for its deference and connection to Chinese culture, history and philosophy.

Chinese pottery – as with most artforms – varies dramatically. The variations are according to dynastic style and preference, available materials, technology and skills of the age and for whom it was made. These reasons, amongst many others, are why Chinese ceramics and all types of oriental pottery are so highly prized by discerning collectors all over the world.

LONG TRADITION

Pieces of Oriental pottery from 20,000 years ago have been found at the Xianrendong site in China’s Jiangxi province, but by the middle to late Neolithic period (5000-1500 BC), many of the early farming cultures such as the Yangshao and Longshan were making highly decorative earthenware vessels. These took the form of (mainly) funerary storage jars decorated with geometric designs, whorls and sawtooth patterns with sweeping, rhythmic brushwork that defied the primitive age.

The people of the Bronze Age Shang dynasty that followed made ash-glazed Chinese pottery and from the end of the spring and autumn period (approximately 771-476 BC) to the start of the Warring States period (476-221 BC), hard-bodied Chinese ceramics fired at very high temperatures were made.

Many of these vessels had traditionally impressed decorations such as pushing fabric cord into the wet clay and then firing them.

Left A pair of Chinese porcelain famille verte, wucai dated vases of meiping form, depicting a governor departing his assigned post, 30.5cm high with four character marks xin si nian zhi, with xin si corresponding to the year, 1701, all images unless stated, courtesy of Marchant

Right Chinese porcelain famille verte, wucai brushpot, bitong, painted with two panels, with two elegant ladies standing beside a pair of chickens, 13.4cm high, Kangxi, (1662-1722)

Below left Chinese porcelain famille verte, wucai rouleau vase painted with a scene from Cailou Ji (The Bunted Loft), in which the impoverished scholar Lü Mengzheng, is seated on the edge of a well head dressed in patchwork, 47cm high, Kangxi, (1662-1722)

North south divide

Geographically and geologically speaking, Chinese pottery can be divided into two overarching categories – northern and southern – and the differences are fascinating. China is in fact made up of two land masses, each geologically different, which came together millions of years ago in the continental drift.

The two land masses formed a junction that sits between the Yellow and Yangtze rivers (known as the Nanshan-Qinling divide) and the contrasting geology means that Chinese ceramics from the north can differ quite dramatically from Chinese pottery from the south.

The north lacks petunse, the stone needed for high quality porcelain so it became the centre for earthenware. The south has high concentrations of silica, potassium oxide and low alumina (the reverse of the north) which made it very suitable for making highquality porcelain.

In addition, northern kilns predominantly used coal whereas southern kilns used different types of wood. It’s also worth noting that Chinese ceramics can be further categorised as guanyao, Asian porcelain made in the imperial kilns for the royal court, and minyao, commercially-made Chinese pottery referring to that made for the people.

‘Just like the culture and history of China itself, the story of Chinese ceramics, the most famous of all oriental pottery, is a richly fascinating tale that dates back millennia. Often the two are intertwined, in that the history of a nation can be learned by the pottery unearthed by archaeologists and analysed, interpreted and decoded by anthropologists’

TERRACOTTA ARMY

Undoubtedly the most famous example of Chinese pottery from around the third century BC is the 8,000 life-size soldiers of the Terracotta Army. With 130 chariots pulled by 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, along with numerous non-military figures such as bureaucrats, musicians, acrobats and strongmen, the army was stationed in military formation near Emperor Qin’s tomb in order to protect the emperor in the afterlife.

These figures depicted the legions of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor, and may have been the first evidence of Chinese pottery production as an artform.

TANG DYNASTY

It was during the Tang dynasty (618906) that the production of Chinese ceramics became more sophisticated. The Tang artists experimented with different kiln temperatures as well as new and fascinating dyes and stains which resulted in the three-colour sancai style, the high-fired limeglazed celadon pieces of this beautiful oriental pottery (known as ‘qingci’) and the highly translucent white Asian porcelain, especially from the Hebei and Hunan regions. In fact, the celadon pieces proved so popular they were produced well into the succeeding dynasties and were exported to neighbouring Korea and Japan and as far away as Egypt.

In 851, famed Arab traveller Suleiman was one of the first foreigners to mention Chinese pottery when he wrote: “They have in China a very fine clay with which they make vases which are as transparent as glass; water is seen through them.”

Right Porcelain vase with peach-bloom glaze (Jingdezhen ware), Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Kangxi 1662–1722, date, 1713–1722, image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, not in exhibition

Below left Chinese porcelain famille verte, wucai baluster vase of tapered form, with a lady in a sedan chair among her attendants with a warrior and scholar, 43.8cm high. Kangxi, (1662-1722)

PORCELAIN CITY

More specifically, the zenith of famille verte production was during a four-decade period between 1685 and 1725 with the majority of pieces, including the famed famille verte ginger jars, being made at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, China’s ‘porcelain city.’ Ritual and ceremonial wares in porcelain were commissioned for at least six of the imperial temples and small altars.

Porcelain was also needed for the emperor’s official and personal use, as well as his extended imperial family and officials.

Under the direction of Superintendent Lang Tingji (1705-1712), official ceramics reached great heights of technical excellence with advances in blue and white porcelain and monochrome glazes – most notably copper-red glazes, whose coloration was notoriously difficult to control and which had not been mastered since the early Ming dynasty reign of the Xuande Emperor (1426-1435).

The most distinctive of the copper-red glazes was the so-called ‘peachbloom’ glaze produced with copper pigment characterised by variegated red and green.

FAMILLE VERTE

In the wonderfully rich and varied history of Chinese ceramics, famille verte porcelain is considered by many to be among its most exquisite.

Literally ‘green family’, famille verte was so named by French art historian Albert Jacquemart whose classification of ceramics in the 1860s according to the colour of the enamel used remains in use to this day and includes famille jaune (yellow), famille rose (red) and famille noire (black).

Unusually for most types of wares, famille verte Chinese porcelain (typically known in China as wucai, or ‘five colours’) can be dated very accurately to Kangxi, the fourth Emperor of the Qing dynasty whose reign of 60 years between 1662 and 1722 makes him the longest reigning emperor in Chinese history.

IMPERIAL COURT

As was commonplace, the very finest pieces of famille verte porcelain, including a number of magnificent famille verte ginger jars, were reserved exclusively for the Imperial court.

Famille verte Chinese porcelain showed off the enamellers’ skill and included exceptionally detailed depictions of flowers, animals, figurative scenes and landscapes. In addition, many are based on ancient Chinese literary sources and they would painstakingly copy the woodcut illustrations used in books.

Perhaps the most famous literary depiction of famille verte porcelain is from The Romance of the Western Chamber written by Yuan dynasty playwright Wang Shifu (1250-1337) in the 13th-century about a young couple who fell in love without parental approval.

POLYCHROMATIC OVERGLAZE

Under the emperor great advances were also made in overglaze enamels, particularly in the famille verte palette. Made with a highly refined paste resulting in an exceptionally fine grade of ceramic ware, famille verte Chinese porcelain is identifiable by its vivid green enamels and polychromatic overglaze colours, including stunning yellow, red, blue and black and, much less common but equally as beautiful, gold.

It’s largely due to the nature of the glaze that famille verte porcelain is renowned for its unique iridescence and translucence, perhaps why it was so highly prized and desirable by late-17th and early-18th century European consumers and remains so today.

As well as dishes, bowls, plates, vases and figurines, the famille verte ginger jar was among a collection of more luxurious items that included monteiths (large ornamental bowls used for cooling wine glasses) made for the export market.

Right Chinese porcelain famille verte, wucai vase of rouleau form, painted with two birds perched on a branch among flowering chrysanthemum and tropical leaves, beneath butterflies, dragonflies and other insects, 47.6cm high, Kangxi, (1662-1722)

All the pieces mentioned in this article can be seen at the exhibition Famille Verte from Private Collections at Marchant’s gallery at 120 Kensington Church Street, W8 4BH from October 28 to November 12.

Below Illustrations from the book The Romance of the Western Chamber informed many Chinese designs

HISTORY OF CHINESE POTTERY – FROM JINGDEZHEN TO TODAY

During the reign of third Song emperor Zhenzong (968 -1022) the town of Jingdezhen in the north-eastern Jiangxi province became the centre of Chinese ceramics production and remained so for a thousand years. First produced under the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty (1280–1368), the world-famous blue and white Chinese pottery reached its zenith during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). While the style, decoration and shape changed with the ascension of each subsequent Ming emperor, the quality of Chinese ceramics produced during this time are indisputably (or arguably) superior to that of any other era before or since.

It was during the Ming dynasty that China shifted to a market economy and the Jingdezhen kilns mass-produced Chinese pottery on an industrial scale both for export and for the imperial court.

As the Ming dynasty made way for the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) in the mid-17th century, the manufacture of Chinese ceramics saw the development of five-colour porcelain known as wucai. This style of Chinese pottery which became incredibly popular in the West was created by applying overglaze pigments of reds, greens, purples, yellows and blues after they had been fired once with a blue underglaze. After the pigments were applied the vessels were fired again.

The tumultuous final years of the Qing – China’s last imperial dynasty – coincided with a downturn in the quality of Chinese ceramics as the resulting political instability took an inevitable toll on the world of arts and culture. However, over the last decades, production is being revived both as modern interpretations and in the traditional styles.