Pacific Asian Art: The Interactions of Dynastic Cultures - Case Study Example

Pacific Asian Art: The Interactions of Dynastic Cultures I. Introduction It is perhaps no over ment to say that, during the contemporary period,knowledge of China and its people and appreciation of their way of life and art have made a better growth in the West than in the entire course of the eras that transpired. The chronological past and affairs of the Middle Kingdom were in earlier times the concern of no one but a small number of sojourners or art specialists and historians. Nowadays, they are a subject of attention to a continuously growing population of enthusiastic investigators. This transition has taken place mainly as an outcome of the rapid development of interaction between the Far East and the Western world which followed the opening of the overland path through Siberia (Fry 1935). This incident not merely made it possible for a large quantity of Western travelers to witness the majestic country of China than ever before. It was the source also of a dramatic contributory consequence, because of the proliferation of railways in China itself, specifically in the Northern provinces, which were the hub of the Empire in ancient ages. The disturbance of the earth due to engineering works resulted in a wealth of concrete or physical evidence of a culture previously known entirely from literary reserves. It now turned out to be probable to appreciate as never been centuries ago, not merely the literature, philosophy and history, but as well as the art of ancient China (ibid). On the other hand, Japanese art has been showcased in Europe in large quantities which were mostly porcelains carried by Dutch traders from Nagasaki, and oftentimes made to order for export. The art of making porcelain in Japan was learned later and never has emerged as others accomplished to be hailed nationally unique and distinctive. Some Japanese porcelain are remarkably of fine quality but they exhibit how triumphantly the Japanese can borrow from the Chinese when they are unable or unskilled to make an art of their own (Ledoux 1927). Meanwhile, for the pottery it is a different story. Here the continental impact came prematurely, from Korea rather than from the Far East, and the pottery of Japan developed racial attributes until a greater part of it became meticulously distinctive and uphold of a charisma and lure all of its own. Particular kinds remained obvious replicas of Chinese varieties, others did not; yet in neither instance does Japanese pottery somewhat equal in appearance and excellence its continental forebears. It does extremely well in a congenial manner of permitting the personality of the creator to materialize in his craft. In uniquely Japanese pottery one senses the individuality of the maker, a connection of communion is forged and lifeless clay appears vibrant with life. Pottery is well-liked for the abstract exquisiteness of form and glaze; it is preserved dearly because of something else. When Japanese pottery is embellished, the distinctive qualities of design, the form of splendor that marks Japanese art, become instantly visible even to the most unenthusiastic (ibid). Going to Southeast Asia, one can hear the term “khreung thuai” which is a Thai term for “pottery” and “ceramics” (Sinopoli 2006, 1). The term pottery in the nation of Thailand includes glossy and unglazed and high-fired and low-fired ware. The tern ceramics is more wide-ranging than pottery. It can refer to a variety of tiles, brick, glass and glossy metals such as spoon and fork. Commonly, nevertheless, it has been implied to mean merely unglazed pottery which has been set into fire to become porcelain. Comparable to Japanese pottery, various kinds of ceramics embody the imaginative ideas of the makers and mirror an array of functions. Ceramics as well are produced as a response to the demands of the customers. In Thailand, there is a wide range of ceramics such as jars, dishes, plates, bottles, teapots, figurines, lanterns, cups, lamps, etc (ibid). Moreover, evidence for creation of glazed stoneware jars has been discovered at Si Satchanalai and Sukhothai and at other excavation sites in north-central Thailand. Most of the popular Thai production sites are traced back from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. In the Chinese nation, dragon jar creation has been accounted to the Shiwan kilns in Guangdong Province, a region where jars are still manufactured in the modern period (ibid). On the other hand, a nation nearby Thailand, the first Vietnamese potteries were discovered which date back to the Hung period. Vietnamese artifacts range from the colors brown-red to beige-yellow, from dull colors such as gray to white, and their outline and technique are extremely simple, in the Buddhist institution. The Celadon stoneware was unearthed with political autonomy, under the Ly and Tran dynasties and became extremely famous in China. The great Kublai Khan of the Mongol dynasty requested that white porcelain bowls be brought for the homage to him by a Vietnamese prince. The ceramics from the dynasties of Ly and Tran are classified as monochromes and covered with three kinds of enamel, which are jade color, ivory, and brown; they include big jars, plates, bowls, and vases and can be ornamented with nature’s elements such as leaves, flowers, animals, etc (Honey 1945). In this paper, four of the richest Asian cultures, namely, China, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam will be discussed and explored so as to establish a connection with the development of ceramics and porcelains among the four nations. The ancient period, as all historians have agreed upon, witnessed intimate links among these dynastic cultures. In order to establish a comprehensive interrelation among the art histories of these four nations, an analysis of the ceramic and porcelain artifacts will be analyzed thoroughly. II. The Magic of Chinese Ceramics and Porcelains The ancient ceramic art of the Chinese has been considered a wonder of many art historians because through years of ritual and practice, the Chinese formulated a secret technique that no culture and civilization knew about, which is the production of eternal ceramic art (Pacific Art Museum 2001). The three centuries of the T’ang period have been hailed as the most golden and brilliant in the history of China. Tranquil and prosperous, liberal, and enthusiastically creative in the field of poetry and painting, Chinese civilization then attained its greatest stage of culture. All the arts apparently thrived and much remains to bear witness to their grandeur and creativity. The ceramic art of the T’ang was chiefly futuristic and imaginative. Exact replicas of the ancient Chinese jades and bronzes are as a matter of fact almost mysterious of the period. Influences from foreign cultures, such as India, Mesopotamia, Persia and Byzantine, are obvious, but do not prevent the art work from being essential and original and completely Chinese (Fry 1935). The influences were incorporated; the foreign interests and motif were not borrowed simply as a matter of fashion. China at the time was in lively interaction with these nations, and the trading of Chinese silk for Western commodities is a fact (ibid). For instance, the jar from the 14th century Guangdong, as shown in appendix A, was“stoneware, iron-oxide lead glaze, sea growth” (Pacific Asia Museum 2001) and depicts a mixture of various cultural design from southeast Asia particularly in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, and other parts of the region. It has been empirically assumed, based on the unearthed artifacts in Asia, that China has established good trading rapport with mainland Southeast Asia. Oftentimes, as historians have hypothesized, Southeast Asians go to China to pay tribute to the emperor so as to forge alliance with the mighty Chinese nation in times of international conflicts. Nevertheless, the receptiveness in the ceramic art of T’ang had been established by many art historians. It was apparently a period of an outward-looking voluntary research and innovation (Honey 1945). The Chinese Empire had been strengthened and was wealthy, and its liberated spirit was echoed in the freshness and naturalness of its ceramic art. The movement away from the extremely simplistic and austere Song styles and back to the vitality and rich vibrancy of the T’ang was undoubtedly due to the reaction of the Chinese people to the lackluster ceramic art of the Song dynasty. As shown in Appendix B & C, one can see the very austere and effortless style of Song’s ceramic art and porcelain. It is normal for the pottery of the Song period to be looked upon as if it consisted entirely of the high-fired stoneware and porcelain for which it became renowned; and the era is hence established to appear like an unaccountable interval when the lead shiny surface introduced in the T’ang were generally ignored (Fry 1935). But this perception is absolutely inaccurate. Lead-glazes ware unquestionably continued to be produced, yet not like stonewares they were not supported by the Emperor or trendy among the Chinese messengers. In Appendix D, the image of the bowl during the Song dynasty supports the contention that lead-glaze was still hype during the period (ibid). For the Ming dynasty, a term is used for the recognition of Ming porcelain in general. Reign-marks at the moment for the very first time started to be frequently added on the foundation of the work of art, and if these could be relied upon the categorization of Ming and later porcelain would be highly reduced to bare bones; but unfortunately they cannot be relied upon. For instance, in Appendix E & F, one can see that the images embedded in the porcelain may allude to the symbols used by a particular regime in the Ming dynasty. The dragon symbol is frequently used by Chinese emperors as their reign-marks because the dragon connotes power and intelligence. The types of decoration were also reminiscent of the Ming dynasty since colored glazes were used, which is blue and green, also distantly calling a T’ang type (ibid). The porcelains can also be classified under the three-colored painted adornment which is characterized by powerfully colored glazes, which are dark blue, turquoise and aubergine, normally separated through enlarged outlines. Thus, some art scholars argue that these Ming porcelains classify to the history of earthenware and stoneware rather than porcelain (ibid). III. The Ceramic and Porcelain Art of Japan For the Japanese ceramic art, the most valuable pieces that were recovered both from an artistic and historical perspective, are the glazed pottery vessels. In appendix G & H, the potteries appeared to had undergone processing in high temperatures and glazed in gold, yellow-brown and white. Some of these wares are composed of three colors, as is usual in T’ang ware, but as the potteries appear, most are either monochrome, yellowish brown or resembling a gold color, or white. The pattern consists of streaks and marks of color akin to those of T’ang pottery. Since these Japanese vessels so closely bear a resemblance to those produce simultaneously in China, a good deal of discussion has been committed to their beginning (Ledoux 1927). Majority of Western scholars have inclined to attribute them to Chinese artisans and assumed that they must have carried these art skills to Japan as gifts from the T’ang court, whereas Japanese scholars, particularly in the present period, have tended to believe that they were produced in Japan independently, either by Japanese artisans replicating Chinese prototypes or by Japanese potters educated by Chinese settlers. The evidence presented by Japanese scholars appears very compelling, for they stress out that the clay applies in the Shoso-in pieces is coarse and dull in contrary to the clay applies in the Chinese wares and is also identical to the clay applied in the roof tiles of the Nara era. Moreover, the glaze is to some extent muddied, or unclear and smooth like T’ang glaze, which is a reflection of the inferiorly developed methods of the Japanese potters (ibid). IV. Thailand and Vietnam’s Ingenious Ceramic Art The unearthed earthenware and stoneware from ancient Thailand show great resemblances to the ceramic and porcelain art of China and Japan such as the use of three colored glaze. In appendix I & J, the potteries appear to be a replica of the Chinese iron-glazed lead stoneware; however, these Thailand potteries are called brown-glazed ware which are reminiscent of Chinese and Vietnamese potter. On the other hand, in appendix K & L, the porcelains were more vibrant and colorful than the potteries. The porcelain in appendix K is also called ‘Celadon’ or ‘Green-Glazed ware’ because it is decorated by an abstract design which is also a characteristic of Vietnamese porcelain art. Likewise, in the porcelain in appendix L is also a reflection of Chinese and Vietnamese porcelain art because of the obvious underglaze that was used prior to the coating of the white and red glazes (Sinopoli 2006). Vietnamese porcelains were processed under the same technique, which is surface finishing. Apparently, studying ancient ceramic and porcelain art of Thailand will lead to the conclusion that in the ancient period there exist a very close relationship among the countries of China, Vietnam and Thailand (ibid). The various classifications of Thailand’s ceramic and porcelain arts are intimately identical with that of Vietnam. The monochrome ware, two-color glazed ware, underglaze ware, inglaze green, blue and white ware, overglazed enamel ware and unglazed ware are some of the most popular categorization of ceramic and porcelain produce of Thailand and Vietnam, which are also traceable, according to some scholars, to the ancient ceramic art of China. The Chinese nation seems to be the cradle of ceramic and porcelain civilizations in Asia (Honey 1945). V. Conclusion Art and history, as seen in the discussion, are two inseparable disciplines. In Asia, the art of making ceramics and porcelains witnessed not only independent ingenuity but also of cooperative effort to establish a kind of art that is truly Asian and not simply Chinese, Japanese, Thais, or Vietnamese, but Asians. Although, these culturally-rich countries have been able to create their own cultural distinctions through adopting foreign art skills, designs and styles and later on appropriating these borrowed art elements to their own cultural orientation, the emergence of ceramic and porcelain art in Asia still proved that art is never solely independent but collective. Moreover, being a critical analyst of these magnificent artistic creations, the development of Asian art maintains that it is not cultural production that determines social and cultural exchanges but vice versa and is quite coherent with the works of art from various periods, cultures, and imaginative minds. Therefore, the argument put forth which claims that the four cultures had an intimate connection with respect to ceramic and porcelain art is well-built since it is forged on an evolutionary perspective which demonstrates that art, just like the social system, also changes after a modification in human social reality. Works Cited Fry, Roger. Chinese Art: An Introductory Handbook to Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Textiles, Bronzes and Minor Arts. London: B.T. Batsford, 1935. Honey, William Bowyer. The Ceramic Art of China, and Other Countries of the Far East. London: Faber & Faber, 1945. Ledoux, Louis. The Art of Japan. New York: Japan Society, 1927. Pacific Asia Museum. 2001. http://www.pacificasiamuseum.org/index.htm Sinopoli, Carla M. "Characterizing the Stoneware "Dragon Jars" in the Guthe Collection: Chemical, Decorative, and Formal Patterning." Asian Perspectives (2006): 240+. Read More