Children's play, also commonly known as "baby play", is one of the traditional Chinese painting subjects, specializing in the depiction of children at play, and often combined with the Chinese zodiac, a variety of auspicious artifacts. In its history, this painting theme is derived from Buddhist beliefs, and then by the influence of Taoism, to the Tang Dynasty, baby play figure is gradually removed from the religious category, transformed into one of the popular daily decorative motifs, symbolizing the prosperity of children and grandchildren, the family has a long time, and continues to this day.
In fact, the baby image was first seen in the Warring States period, the early main jade, silk paintings, as well as royal tombs masonry and murals. To the Wei Jin and North and South Dynasties period, the expression and image content is also more rich, and in the Jin Dynasty paper and silk painting also began to appear. At that time, the image of infants was not an independent theme, but only as an accompaniment to the paintings. On the other hand, for painters at that time, it was very difficult to paint infants. Not only was it not easy to grasp the body shape, skin color, and appearance, but it also required a great deal of skill to show the difference in age and size. Therefore, there were not many painters who knew how to do this during that period.
To the Tang and Song dynasties, with the maturity of painting skills, baby play figure ushered in the golden age, especially the two Song dynasties, is to reach its peak. Creation of a school of its own, many artists works, a wide range of materials, the influence is also unprecedented, and became one of the court painters most favorite painting subject matter. It was also during this period that the baby play drawings began to converge with the aesthetic interests of the folk, which was mainly reflected in the transformation of the subject matter and paintings into "custom paintings". More importantly, during the Song Dynasty, baby play themes began to appear in porcelain decoration in large numbers. Craftsmen used various techniques, such as carving, scratching and printing, to show the liveliness of babies. Babies also began to appear in groups, baby play by bamboo, play flowers, or swinging, riding a bamboo horse, very interesting.
And spent the Liao, Jin and Yuan after the downturn, the Ming Dynasty, baby play figure has ushered in a new peak. Painting style is quite Song Dynasty heritage charm, painting work, vivid characters, boutique generation. And the subject matter is very characteristic. However, when it comes to porcelain, the early Ming dynasty due to the high iron content of imported raw materials of blue and white, the finished product will show black iron spots and halo, should not be used to depict the characters, so the painting requirements are very high baby play figure is not many. But even if yongxuan baby play figure painting work can not be compared with other decorations of the same period, but at least for a time declining baby play figure again flourished the beginning. Thus, the baby play figure began to popularize, appeared five, eight, nine, sixteen and other different themes.
The Qing Dynasty is the porcelain figure figure the great development of the period, especially after the Qianlong, baby play figure not only a large number of people, the scene is grand, the content of the performance also exceeded the previous dynasty. Unfortunately, the composition is more and more complex and dense, the style of painting changed to "pattern painting", auspicious symbolism has covered the artistic value, and gradually with the literati and elegant appreciation of the interest of the opposite.
This time, the Jingshan Hidden Kiln "blue and white children's music chart chicken cup" set copy, for the Ming Zhengde three years of Xia Kwai painted baby play. The original color silk, painted sixteen children play in the courtyard, the composition is sparse and dense, the brushwork is fine and realistic, the babies look different, naive and charming, the image has a typical characteristics of the middle and late Ming Dynasty: robes and coats, round face and big brain, the back of the head protrudes like a melon. From the number of infants and painting size, belonging to the boutique in the "masterpiece", which is one of the reasons why we chose this painting, only this group of infants and children play painting, can be commensurate with the chicken cup of the large type, the other is not enough gas field.
And before we started to write, we really did a lot of work. The plane painting to porcelain is the first difficult point, the original serigraphy four square neat, and the cup is no head and tail of the arc, there is no way to copy. We will recompose the picture according to the shape of the vessel, set the position of each group of characters, the size and proportion of each character, as well as the relationship between the characters echo, no matter which angle is turned to, is a complete and continuous picture.
Interpretation of the details, is the greater difficulty. For one thing, sixteen children's movements, demeanor, clothing, accessories are all different, and are dynamic, which requires the artist must eat through the original work, and Ming painters on the literati paintings of the sentiment of the pen again. When the brush should be natural and smooth, a stop on the raw, the character charm is gone. Secondly, we paint in the form of rare pure figures, without other decorations as a backdrop, this composition is not easy to make the overall sense of hierarchy, so the hook line and water separation should be very clear. In the end, we see that each character's features and clothing are accounted for, not a vague passing, and even the hair on the bun and the pattern on the clothes are clearly visible.
Thus, this is the second of the recently released chicken cups from the Jueshan Hidden Kiln, following the "Blue and White Imitation Ming Baoxiang Chicken Cup". As I said at the beginning of the article, it was originally planned before the Ming Cup, but as you can see, this cup is quite abrasive, and the time for finalizing the drawings, test firing, and adjustments is naturally longer, so it has been until today that we can share it with you, and hope that this cup will also be recognized by all of you.
I wish you all the best in the fall!