Enamel Technology in Arts and Crafts of Ming and Qing Dynasties
Cloisonne (cloisonne enamel) technology in the Ming Dynasty developed rapidly on the basis of the big food kiln in the Yuan Dynasty. Produced by the Imperial Palace Supervision Factory, for the exclusive use of the royal family. Take Yunlong Gai can, which was made in Xuande and supervised by the imperial court, as the representative. However, during the Jingtai period, the system of palace workshops could only maintain the level of the previous generation, with a slight change. Since then, almost all the products of past dynasties have been passed down from generation to generation. Wanli cloisonne enamel ware is characterized by short and unrestrained cloisonne and bright and warm glaze color. This is a great change in enamel. Folk cloisonne enamel products are produced in Beijing and Yunnan, and are specially used for women's boudoir, not for study. Cloisonne was very popular in Qing dynasty, court and folk, and its cloisonne and enamel materials were also different from those in Ming dynasty. The producing areas are Beijing, Yangzhou, Jiujiang and Guangzhou, with different styles and advantages. In the late Qing Dynasty, only private factories in Beijing maintained production. There are few remains of enamel color in Ming dynasty, but it is widely popular in Qing dynasty. This is related to the development of copper technology in Guangzhou. The enamel factory of the Forbidden City in Qing Dynasty also produced enamel, but the quantity was very small. The theory of enamel painting began in the Ming Dynasty, and the existing objects began in Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty. Kangxi painted enamel has two products: trial production and standardization. It is estimated that the earliest painted enamel in the Qing Dynasty may have been introduced to Guangzhou after the opening of the maritime ban, and was first trial-produced and fired by Guangzhou craftsmen. However, the Forbidden City Enamel Factory has also experienced the process of independent trial firing. Missionaries' enamelware entered the palace a few years later than Guangzhou, so they played a very small role in spreading the technology of firing enamelware. The largest producing area of painted enamel is Guangzhou, which not only has a large-scale painted enamel industry and workshops, but also sends painted enamel craftsmen to the palace, providing enamel materials produced or imported in Guangzhou and a large number of finished products. But there are differences in workmanship and style, including "palace made" and "foreign made", royal and local. Art is also interrelated and different, completely different. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Guangzhou painting enamel disappeared, and only Beijing folk workshops were still producing it, but the quality was low, which was not what it used to be. Transparent enamel is almost only produced in Guangzhou, while blue burning can be done in jewelry buildings in cities and rural areas all over the country.