12. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China “Kraak ware” plate with auspicious motifs Ming dynasty, first half of 17th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 1 3/4 x 8 3/8 Collection of Bill Crane

13. Chaozhou kilns, Guangdong prov-ince, China Large “Swatow ware” dish with molded floral designs Ming dynasty, 17th century Porcelain with blue glaze and molded white slip décor 3 5/8 x 15 3/8 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

14. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China Brush pot with landscape scene Qing dynasty, Kangxi era (1662–1722), 17th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 6 1/2 x 7 1/2 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

15. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China Incense burner with design of “one hundred antiques” Qing dynasty, Kangxi era (1662–1722), 1680/1700 Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 5 1/8 x 10 The Suzanne and Alex Rosenkrantz Collection of Asian Art 2010.36.12

16. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China Large moon flask with Buddhist motifs Qing dynasty, 19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting Base inscribed with spurious date, Dai Qing Qianlong nian zhi (Made during the Qianlong era [1735–1796] of the Great Qing dynasty) 18 3/4 x 14 3/8 x 81/2 The Suzanne and Alex Rosenkrantz Collection of Asian Art 2010.36.13

17. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China Square bottle with designs modeled after hanging-scroll paintings Qing dynasty, 19th century Base inscribed Daoguang nian zhi (Made during the Daoguang era [1820-1850]) Porcelain with underglaze blue painting; silver collar and lid added later 6 7/8 x 4 x 4 Collection of Brooks and Dorothy Cofield

18. China, unknown kiln Footed bowl with dragon and cloud design Qing dynasty, 19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 Private Collection

19. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China; painted in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China “Canton ware” platter with waterside landscape scene Qing dynasty, 19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 1 7/8 x 14 1/2 x 11 5/8 Collection of Peter Sargent

20. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China; painted in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China “Canton ware” bottle vase with waterside landscape scene Qing dynasty, 19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 12 1/2 x 8 1/2 Collection of Peter Sargent

21. Probably Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China “Hawthorn pattern” jar with lid Qing dynasty, 19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 17 1/4 x 10 Collection of Peter Sargent

22. Probably Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China “Hawthorn pattern” jar with lid Qing dynasty, 19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 16 1/2 x 11 Collection of Peter Sargent

KOREAN WARES

23. Probably Bunwon kilns, Gwangju province, Korea Bottle with floral spray design Joseon dynasty, 18th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 13 1/8 x 8 5/8 Collection of Robert and Sandra Mattielli

24. Probably Bunwon kilns, Gwangju province, Korea Large storage jar with design of dragons chasing flaming pearls Joseon dynasty, 18th/19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 18 3/4 x 12 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

25. Probably Bunwon kilns, Gwangju province, Korea Wine bottle with dragon design Joseon dynasty, 18th/19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 12 x 8 1/4 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

26. Probably Bunwon kilns, Gwangju province, Korea Small jar with twin phoenix design Joseon dynasty, 18th/19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 4 1/8 x 4 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

Cobalt bluesJanuary 25 – July 27, 2014

Cover: 24

Portland art MuseuM, oregon

27. Korea, unknown kiln Water dropper with landscape design Joseon dynasty, 19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 1 Collection of Robert and Sandra Mattielli

28. Korea, signature undeciphered Globular jar with orchid design Second half of 20th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 5 x 5 1/2 Collection of Robert and Sandra Mattielli

JAPANESE WARES

29. Arita kilns, Saga prefecture, Japan Early “Imari ware” apothecary jar with bird and flower design Edo period, 1670s Base inscribed I.C. Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 16 1/4 x 10 1/4 Museum Purchase: Funds provided by Morris Schnitzer in honor of Mildred Schnitzer 80.65

30. Arita kilns, Saga prefecture, Japan Early “Imari ware” plate with design of a bird in a tree Edo period, second half of 17th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 1 x 7 5/16 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

31. Arita kilns, Saga prefecture, Japan Early “Imari ware” plate with design of a cottage by a waterfall Edo period, second half of 17th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 1 1/4 x 7 7/8 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

32. Possibly Hirado kilns, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan Hizen ware plate with chrysanthemum design Edo period, 18th/19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 2 3/8 x 12 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

33. Arita kilns, Saga prefecture, Japan “Imari ware” plate with dragon design Edo period, 19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 2 x 11 1/4 Collection of Bill Crane

34. Arita kilns, Saga prefecture, Japan “Imari ware” deep bowl with chrysanthemum and bellflower designs Edo period, 19th century Base inscribed Fuku (Good fortune) Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 8 x 14 1/2 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

35. Possibly Hirado kilns, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan Hizen ware plate with kirin and cloud design Meiji period, late 19th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting and molded design 1 x 8 11/16 Collection of Brooks and Dorothy Cofield

36. Kondō Yūzō (Japanese, 1902–1985) Vase with thistle design c. 1965 Porcelain with underglaze blue painting Base inscribed Yū 8 7/8 x 8 1/4 Collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz

This dossier presentation of works from the Portland Art Museum permanent collection is organized and curated by Maribeth Graybill, Ph.D., The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art, and is funded in part by the Exhibition Series Sponsors.

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HoW blue-aND-WHIte PoRCelaIN Is MaDe

Preparing the Kaolin ClayIn China, Korea, and Japan, blue-and-white por-celain has traditionally been manufactured in kilns located near deposits of kaolin, a special type of clay that is essential in creating the characteristic white body of porcelain. Kaolin is mined as large rocks, which are washed, crushed, and ground to a fine powder. This powder is mixed with water to form a watery solution, which is repeatedly filtered to remove iron and other impurities. After enough water has been removed to make the clay firm enough to handle, the clay is kneaded to blend all the particles together and to remove any air pockets. If this process is not given enough time and care, the clay can warp or crack during firing.

shapingWhile the clay is still moist, plates, bowls, bottles, and other vessels are created on the wheel or in molds. When the clay has dried to the “leather-hard” stage, designs may be incised or impressed into the surface. Complex shapes made from multiple parts that were molded separately are

adjoined at this stage, and protruding parts—such as knobs, spouts, or handles—are added. The foot rim is carved out by paring the base of the piece with a metal or bamboo knife. Finally, the surface is carefully wiped with cloth or leather to make it perfectly smooth.

Drying and biscuit FiringThe completed vessels are set aside in the shade or sun to dry thoroughly. They are given an initial firing in a kiln where the temperature is slowly raised to 900° Centigrade and then gradually reduced.

Painting and GlazingCobalt oxide, ground to a powder, is mixed with water in solutions of varying proportions to create pigments in multiple shades of blue. Designs are painted freehand, which is why no two pieces are exactly alike. Because the low-fired porcelain surface is slightly absorbent, like the surface of paper, it takes great skill to draw a clean outline with a narrow brush. A wide brush is used to fill in designs.

Once the painted design is thoroughly dry, the vessel is coated with a clear glaze, which gives the finished work a high gloss. Small clay pieces are dipped into the glaze, while a ladle is used to pour glaze over large items.

second FiringThe wares are fired for a second time in a kiln that is slowly heated to 900° C, rapidly heated to 1200° C, and finally brought to the maximum temperature of 1300° C. At this high temperature, both the glaze and the kaolin body of the piece vitrify—turn to glass—and fuse together, giving porcelain its characteristic hardness.

Maribeth Graybill, Ph.D.The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art

Evoking the crisp contrast of sky and sand, blue and white may be the most refreshing of all color combinations. For centuries, potters have deco-rated white clay with cobalt to create handsome wares of enduring appeal. This dossier presenta-tion draws upon a small nucleus of objects in the Museum’s collection and generous loans from private individuals to explore the innovative and alluring designs of blue-and-white ceramics made in China, Korea, and Japan between the four-teenth and twentieth centuries.

In East Asia, cobalt first appeared as an accent color in the splash-glazed stoneware of China’s Tang dynasty (618–907). Both the taste for blue and the cobalt ore itself came from Iran. After the ninth century, overland trade through Central Asia dwindled and cobalt disappeared from Chinese ceramics for the next four centuries. It was during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), when China was under Mongol rule, that cobalt was re-introduced, now as underglaze decoration on white porcelain. By the end of the fourteenth century, blue-and-white porcelain had eclipsed celadon and other types of stoneware for both imperial and domestic use, and it was soon exported in vast quantities around the globe.

Cobalt-decorated porcelain represented a rad-ical shift in technique and taste. Previously, the aesthetic appeal of Chinese ceramics had been defined by the beauty of an object’s shape, either thrown on the wheel or formed by hand, and by the colors of its glaze. With the introduction of porcelain, a less malleable medium, potters increasingly made use of molds, which allowed for the efficient production of works of consistent shape and size. The focus of both labor and visual interest shifted to surface design—patterns and

pictorial designs brushed in cobalt, not unlike monochrome ink paintings.

By the sixteenth century, Chinese blue-and-white porcelains had inspired cobalt-decorated wares in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, and as far afield as Safavid Iran, Ottoman Turkey, and the Netherlands. At this time, only China, Korea, and Japan had true por-celain, which requires kaolin clay, ground quartz, and the ability to fire a kiln at 1300º Celsius in order to vitrify the clay and glaze. It was not until the early eighteenth century that scientists at Meissen in Germany discovered these technical secrets, thus breaking the East Asian monopoly on porcelain. While porcelain production eventually spread to other European countries and the Americas, Western manufacturers of blue-and-white ware continued to copy Chinese and Islamic designs well into the nineteenth century.

Korea, second only to China in developing high-fired stoneware and exquisite celadon, developed its own porcelain during the Joseon dynasty (1395–1910). Shaped by Neo-Confucian philosophy and aesthetics, the royal court and the scholarly class favored the austere simplicity of pure white wares. Kilns at Bunwon in Gyeongju province, close to the capital city of Seoul, cre-ated porcelains for the elite and commoners alike.

Blue-and-white wares were rare in the early Joseon period due to a scarcity of imported cobalt, but the discovery of

local ore deposits in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries helped

usher in a golden age of exuberantly painted

storage jars, wine bottles, and items for the scholar’s study.

In Japan, porcelain making

was introduced by Korean pot-ters who were

forcibly brought to the country after

the Japanese invasions of Korea during the 1590s. Potters in the service of warlords in Kyushu, Japan’s westernmost island, brought with them the sophisticated technology of high-temperature kilns, and they found both kaolin and cobalt ore in their new home. Several small kilns were established for the exclusive use of the local elite, while the town of Arita blossomed into a major center for porcelain production. Known as “Imari ware” after a nearby port, Arita blue-and-white and polychrome porcelains burst onto global markets in the mid-seventeenth century, a time when the great Chinese porcelain kilns at Jingdezhen had fallen into disarray. By the time Jingdezhen was rebuilt in the 1680s, Imari ware had won a lasting place in world trade.

CHECKLIST

Dimensions are given in inches; height precedes width or diameter precedes depth.Historical periods:China Yuan dynasty: 1271 – 1368 Ming dynasty: 1368 – 1644 Qing dynasty: 1644 – 1911Korea Joseon dynasty: 1395 – 1910Japan Edo period: 1615 – 1868

CHINESE WARES

1. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, or Fujian province, China Balimbing-shaped jarlet with chrysanthemum spray design Late Yuan/early Ming dynasty, 14th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 2 3/16 x 2 1/8 The Jeanne Gunther Hemphill Collection of Asian Ceramics 2009.27.2

2. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, or Fujian province, China Jarlet with chrysanthemum spray design and beaded decoration Late Yuan/early Ming dynasty, 14th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting and applied beaded decoration 2 15/16 x 2 1/2

The Jeanne Gunther Hemphill Collection of Asian Ceramics 2009.27.4

3. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China Jarlet with cloud design Ming dynasty, 14th/15th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 2 x 2 1/2 The Jeanne Gunther Hemphill Collection of Asian Ceramics 2009.27.7

4. Zhangzhou kilns, Fujian province, China Jarlet with flaming pearl design Ming dynasty, late 16th/early 17th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 2 1/8 x 2 1/2 Gift of Jack and Mary Decker 2012.91.22

5. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China Fishbowl with design of two dragons chasing flaming pearls Ming dynasty, Wanli era (1573–1619) Rim inscribed Dai Ming Wanli nian zhi (Made during the Wanli era of the Great Ming dynasty) Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 10 1/4 x 20 1/2 Gift of John McGuire 2010.68

6. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China Large “Kraak ware” platter with design of a vase of treasures Ming dynasty, Wanli era (1573–1619) Porcelain with underglaze blue painting Diameter 20 1/2 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

7. Possibly Zhangzhou kilns, Fujian province, China “Kraak ware” deep bowl with design of rabbit, plants, and deer Ming dynasty, late 16th/early 17th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 4 3/8 x 9 1/8 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

8. Possibly Zhangzhou kilns, Fujian province, China A pair of “Kraak ware” bowls with design of deer, plants, fruits, and birds Ming dynasty, late 16th/early 17th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting a: 3 x 5 5/8; b: 2 7/8 x 5 5/8 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

9. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China Small plate with design of two deer in a forest Ming dynasty, late 16th/early 17th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 1 x 8 1/8 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

10. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China Small plate with design of two deer in a forest Ming dynasty, late 16th/early 17th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 1 1/16 x 6 13/16 Collection of Richard Louis Brown

11. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China “Kraak ware” plate with bird and flower design Ming dynasty, first half of 17th century Porcelain with underglaze blue painting 1 5/8 x 8 1/4 Collection of Bill Crane

Cobalt blues

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