File:Chinese pottery and porcelain - an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day (1915) (14590917669).jpg

Identifier: chinesepotterypo01hobs (find matches)
Title: Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Hobson, R. L. (Robert Lockhart), 1872-1941
Subjects: Pottery -- China History
Publisher: New York : Funk and Wagnalls
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ty, inter-course with foreign states was renewed, and a host of for-eign influences must have penetrated into the middle kingdom, including those of the Indian, Persian, and Byzantine arts. Tang pieces are only beginning to find their w ay to Europe, and afford surprising evidences of the maturity which ceramic art attained during the period of the dynasty. The n\ajority of the speci-al ens which ha^p come to light are mortuary pieces, and until more tombs are exhumed and further pieces surrendered by Chinese col-lectors, it wi 11 be impossible to form a final e stimate of Tang pottery. Among its especial characte r i s t i c s are the large proportion of figure pieces it includes. S o me of these are clearly inspired by Grteco- Roman influence, and rival their exemplars in force and spirit. Horses are taken for subjects with great fre- l°!l«d w^th ernat boldness andthe sculpturesque power of the^st shown, however, in the largevhich a few rare examples havepe. These, while embodying
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MODEL OF A FOWLING TOWER HAN POTTERY, WITH IRIDESCENT GREEN GLAZE HEIGHT, ^O IN ....^uipury. .ai-ri .^.-». n. i,character. Perhap;Tang craftsmen is 1Buddhist figures, of,been brought to Ef.-of .4 . the Buddhist idea \\ abstraction and aloofness, arerealised with wondi rfal literalness, and offer a com-bination of monum -ntal repose with the expression ofmental energy that n iu its way quite unrivalled. Thesefigures are even n.crc remarkable as pottery than as sculpture. Speakingof a splendid ex-ample in the BritishMuseum, 50 incheshigh, Mr. Hobsonstates that to firesuch a mass of ma-terial without subsi-dence or crackingwould tax the capa-bilities of the bestmodern pottery,while the skill dis-played in the model-1 i n g is probablyunequalled in anyknown example ofceramic sculpture.The glazes used bythe Tang potterswere numerous, andthe shapes of theirpieces and the stylesof ornamentationused remarkable fortheir variety. Somerecently discoveredpieces would evenseem to prove thatpainti

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