Survey of the Decorative Arts

CHINA: 1000-1800

Dynastic Chronology

Neolithic ca. 7000-ca. 2000 BCE

Xia ca. 2070-ca. 1600 BCE

Shang ca. 1600-1046 BCE

Zhou 1046-256 BCE

Qin 221-207 BCE

Han 206 BCE-220 CE

Six Dynasties 220-589

Sui 581-618

Tang 618-907

Five Dynasties 907-960

Liao 916-1125

Song 960-1279

Jin 1115-1234

Yuan 1271-1368

Ming 1368-1644

Qing 1644-1912

Republic of China 1912-1949

People's Republic of China since 1949

For a detailed chronology see link on wiki.

Song (960-1279)

Yuan (1271-1368), Mongol rule

Ming (1368-1644)

Qing (1644-1911), Manchu rule

ROC1912-1949

People’s Republic of China

1949-

Early printed paper money, 12th c.

Portrait of the scholar Ni ZanCa. 1340

• Education (gentry, scholar elite)

• Commercialization (merchants)

• Collecting

Inscription: “1162. Lin’an prefecture. Fu family. Truly authentic, best quality.”

Sutra boxes from the Huiguang pagoda in Wenzhou, 1043.

Lotus Sutra (Tang-Five Dynasties), 9th-10th c. Excavated in Ruiguang Pagoda in Suzhou.

nijin - gold painting (literally “pasted gold”)

Cizhou ware

Twill damask, 11th-12th c.

Jizhou ware

Archaistic bronze vessel. Gift by Emperor Huizong to the eunuch Tong Guan in 1116.

sao xiangWashing the elephant

Ding Yunpeng painting

sao xiangWashing the elephant

Sweeping away icons

Jingdezhen

Porcelain plaque, painted by Wang Dafan, 1928. Table screen with porcelain plaque by Wang Dafan,1956.

Qin Xilin (b. 1942). Continuation, ca. 1995.Prof. at Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute, Fine Arts Dept since 1980, director since late 90s

Painted earthenware vessel. Neolithic.Banpo Culture. Ca 3000 BCE.

Qin Xilin (b. 1942). Continuation, ca. 1995. Li Lihong (b. 1974), “McDonalds #1, 2007. V&A

Porcelain market at Panjiayuan, Beijing, 2011, after privatization of Jingdezhen workshops in 1998.

Porcelain painter in Jingdezhen, 1992

Porcelain – Marco Polo porcellana/porcelaine – cowrie shell

Large dish in Asia Society, ca. 1350s. Inscription in Persian:Shah Jahan ibn' Jahangir Shah, 1063,” the date corresponding to 1652/1653.

The faithful disciple and member of the [Daoist] Jingtang Society, Zhang Wenjin of Dejian lane in the village of Shuncheng in Yushan county of Xinzhou Circuit, is happy to present an altar set of an incense burner and vases as a prayer for the protection of the whole family and for the peace and prosperity of his descendants. Noted on a lucky day in May 1351. Dedicated before the Xingyuan ancestral shrine of the [deified] General Hu Jingyi.

Marcel Breuer, Wassily Chair, 1927

Hans Wegner, KinastolDenmark, 1944V&A Late Ming 17thc V&A

1944