tour 12 of 14
Mountains and water: Chinese landscape painting
Landscapes painted on ceramics
Until the seventeenth century, landscape
painting was an art form associated with the elite. From this time,
however, landscapes were transferred to ceramics, a medium that
could be enjoyed and used by ordinary people. The status of the
painted ceramics - with their bright cobalt blue underglaze and
coloured enamel - was much lower than that of more subtle ink
painting.
Painted ceramics
were produced for export, giving Europeans their first taste of
Chinese painting. The painting on these export ceramics, however,
was very different from the sort of painting that was highly valued
in China.
This
lantern-shaped porcelain vase, made during the Kangxi Period
(1662-1722), is decorated with landscape
scenes.