A Guide to the Symbolism of Chinese Ceramic Decoration

[Music] these are all imperial pieces made mostly during the 18th century for the Chennai Emperor's Court he was really one of the most revered Emperor's in China's artistic history and many new innovations and fantastic pieces of art were made during his reign throughout Chinese history there has always been a great deal of symbolism in its artwork and a lot of it is to do with homophones in the Chinese language for example the word for backed in Chinese is full and it's the same sound as the word which means good luck and fortune these kind of links really are very playful in Chinese art on this beautiful moon flask we can see peony we also have magnolias and we have crab apples these three flowers form a rebus in Chinese which is a saying that goes you tongue food way and it means in English may your noble house be blessed with wealth and honor the dragon and Phoenix are actually representative of the Emperor and Empress and in that context sometimes the dragon and Phoenix motif would be representative of Imperial marriage this very colorful border here to the neck this representative of silk banners that would have been used in Tibetan Buddhist temples [Music] this piece is actually dated to the dashing rain which is just after the 10 November we can see we have some peaches which represent longevity we also have the swastika symbol here which is another Buddhist symbol and it's actually a homophone in Chinese for the word wine which means 10000 or abundance this piece is actually from the Jung Jung reign who was the Emperor who preceded Chen long again we have many symbols seen here so you have double gourds which are representative of fertility and you have a matching cover which is decorated with four roundels containing the character for which means good luck and good fortune and general happiness the boys represented on this FAR's are a symbol for many sons and grandsons and prosperity for the whole family it's very kind of playful and skillfully done on such a small scale [Music] it's fascinating to see how symbolism was such an integral part of Imperial works of art from the Ching dynasty and also how the advancements in technology at that time enabled the Potters of the time to be able to depict these symbols in a very vibrant way you you

Channel: Christie's

Views: 42,505

Keywords: Symbolism, Chinese, Ceramic, Decoration, Chinese Ceramic Decoration, Symbolism of Chinese Ceramic Decoration, Chinese art, Peonies, jasmine, chrysanthemums, flowers, porcelains, Song, Song dynasty, decorative themes, designs, beauty, Chinese history, artwork

Id: nfYdGuhjGwA

Length: 3min 28sec (208 seconds)

Published: Thu May 03 2018