“Back and Forth: Clay and Glass, China and West Asia, 6th-12th Century”

Multiple factors contributed to the astonishing vitality that characterized the Chinese ceramics industry from the sixth to the twelfth century. These include heightened interchanges between the south and the north, the longstanding Chinese tradition of cross-craft exchanges in shapes and patterns, and the introduction of new forms and designs.  The latter was spurred by the expanding trade in prestige goods, particularly metal and glass from West and Central Asia, which reached China both overland on the fabled Silk Roads, and by sea. Archaeological discoveries combined with scientific examination of works of art have shown that a type of porcelain, with kaolin in the body, and vitrified glazes, was first produced in China in the second half of the sixth century, often in the shape of small cups that echo imported West and Central Asian glass forms. The development of high-fired white bodies spurred technical innovations throughout north China as well as in ceramic-producing centers in Iraq and Iran. These ultimately led to the invention of both tin-glazing and luster, technologies that underlay European majolica.

Denise Patry Leidy currently serves as the Ruth and Bruce Dayton Curator of Asian Art at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. Prior to joining Yale, Dr. Leidy served as the Brooke Russell Astor Curator of Chinese Art (emerita) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in curatorial positions at The Asia Society in New York, and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She is endlessly fascinated by the development and movement of technologies, ideas, and images within and between Asian cultures, and between these centers and those in Africa, Europe and the Americas. In addition to curating exhibitions, she has published and lectured widely exploring topics in Buddhist art, Chinese and other Asian ceramics, and East Asian lacquer.  Her publications include Buddhist Art: Its History and Meaning; Mother-of-Pearl: A Tradition in Asian Lacquer; Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; How to Read Chinese Ceramic; and the recently released Celadon on the Seas: Chinese Ceramics, 9th – 14th century.

Image: Jar, China, first half of the 8th century. Earthenware with three-color (sancai) glaze, H. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm.). Bequest of Charles Bain Hoyt – Charles Bain Hoyt Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 50.895.