Blue-and-white vase with dragons
Blue-and-white porcelain from Jingdezhen reached its classic form under the Xuande Emperor. The five-clawed dragon was reserved for the emperor.
Blue beneath the glaze: the cobalt was painted onto the unfired clay and fired in.
Blue-and-white porcelain, in which the pattern is painted in cobalt beneath the glaze, was developed in China under the Yuan dynasty in the 14th century. It was produced above all in Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province, which became the world’s most important porcelain city. Under the Ming dynasty in the 15th century production reached a peak, especially under the Xuande Emperor, who reigned from 1426 to 1435. The British Museum has a large collection of such porcelain.
Vases from this period often have a clear, elegant form with a rounded body and a short neck. The decoration is painted in blue on a white ground. Dragons are a common motif. The five-clawed dragon was reserved for the emperor and used on objects made for the court. The dragons often coil around the vessel among clouds or waves. The vessels often bear the imperial reign mark, a short inscription giving the name of the emperor’s reign period.
The composition is arranged in bands. The decoration follows the shape of the vessel, with narrow bands at the neck and foot and a wider band around the body. This creates balance and rhythm. The dragon moves around the vessel, so one has to turn it or walk around it to see the whole motif.
Porcelain was made from kaolin, a white clay, and porcelain stone. It was fired at a very high temperature, around 1300 degrees, becoming hard, white and partly translucent. The cobalt was painted directly onto the dried, unfired surface and then covered with glaze. In the 15th century some cobalt was imported from Persia. It could produce dark, almost black spots where the colour pooled, which is now regarded as a hallmark of the period. At the imperial kiln in Jingdezhen archaeologists have found vast quantities of sherds of rejected porcelain. Objects with the slightest flaw were not allowed to leave the workshop but were smashed, which shows how strict the control was.
Blue-and-white porcelain was made both for the court and for export. It was sold across large parts of the world, to the Middle East, South-East Asia and later Europe. The patterns were sometimes adapted to buyers’ tastes. The colour blue had special significance in the Islamic world, and Persian models influenced both shapes and patterns.
In Europe Chinese porcelain was for a long time highly sought after and expensive. European manufacturers tried for centuries to copy it. The Dutch made blue-and-white faience in Delft, and only in the early 18th century did Meissen in Germany succeed in making true porcelain. The very word “china” became closely associated with porcelain.
Blue-and-white porcelain is today a symbol of Chinese ceramics. Imperial pieces from the 15th century are among the most valuable objects on the art market. The British Museum displays a large collection in a gallery of its own, where one can see how the style changed over time.