Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/231

pendants, and the crape head-dress of ancient times are replaced by the full-sleeved surcoat, the round cap with button and plume, and the queue of the Tartar epoch, it is possible to be sure that there is no question of Ming ware. In Oriental art the soft folds and flowing curves of drapery take the place occupied in the West by the graceful contours of the human figure. So soon as the Chinese keramist found that his palette enabled him to depict luxuriantly apparelled damsels and richly robed officials, such subjects seemed to him not less natural than nude nymphs and muscular heroes have always seemed to the potters of Europe and America. Moreover, in China the bright colours of official uniforms and private apparel offer a marked contrast to the generally sombre scenery of the country and the ungraceful architecture of the cities. An artist applying polychrome decoration to porcelain, and seeking to travel beyond the range of dragons, phœnixes, and supernatural beings, could scarcely have hesitated to derive inspiration from what may be said to have been the only gay objects amid his surroundings. Accordingly the prevalence of figure subjects—sovereigns, officials, ladies, and children—is a striking feature of Kang-hsi enamelled porcelain.

With respect to enamels, the colours of the Ming potters were still employed, but there was often added to them a blue enamel—varying from brilliant blue to lavender—the presence of which is alone sufficient to mark a piece as belonging to a period later than the Ming dynasty, since before the Kang-hsi era blue, if used, invariably appears, not as an enamel, but as a pigment under the glaze. The enamels themselves cannot be said to have been purer or more bril-