SHIWAN POTTERY EXPLORED
105
Exploration around the modern city of Fushan reveals present-day continuation of the handicraft industries of painting (Plate 11), textiles, paper-cutting, papier mache, and of course pottery in the neighbouring town of Shiwan. The famed Ancestral Temple in a short distance from the Overseas Chinese Hotel, is full of the work of handicraft artists of the past, with excellent examples of metalwork (Plate 12), gilt wood carving (Plate 13), brick carving and papier mache, not to mention the rooftops which are covered with long and elaborate Shiwan pottery friezes (Plate 15).
The Shiwan potters' use of waste and inexpensive materials led to the development of a rather unique art aesthetic. The use of all different types of waste materials, in addition to being economical, was perfectly suited to the development of a wide range of colourful and variegated flambe glazes, which indeed has been unequalled. Descriptive names such as "tiger skin", "leopard skin", "pomegranate red", "peacock's feather", "sesame seed", etc., were bequeathed according to colour and configuration. In addition, the inexpensive pottery clay with a high content of sand was much more pliable and suitable for sculpture than fragile porcelain clay. Taking advantage of the nature of this material, the potters sculpted their vessels in high relief forms from plant and animal worlds (Plate 16).
The pliable pottery clay was also good for figure sculpture which became a Shiwan specialty. The potters soon found that if they left flesh areas unglazed, more detailed and warm human expression would result. For subject matter they drew on a wide range of characters from folklore, history and religion as well as the common man, in each case attempting to distill the nature of the individual into a small size artistic creation. Anatomic exactness was sometimes deliberately altered to better convey spirit.10 (Plate 7).
The superiority of Shiwan pottery sculpture over that of porcelain was recognized when in the late 1920's three of Shiwan's best artists, Pan Yushu (**), Chen Weiyan (), and Chen Zhi (*), were invited to the Jingdezhen (✯{1⁄2§4) porcelain potteries to sculpt figures. According to Silva Mendes, Macau barrister and Shiwan collector, who personally knew the potters, the results were not good because porcelain is not as adequate a material as clay for this type of work, (i.e. sculpture). A porcelain figure of the goddess Guan Yin (†) in a private Macau collection with the mark of Shiwan potter Chen Weiyan, verifies this point, displaying
SHIWAN POTTERY EXPLORED
105
Exploration around the modern city of Fushan reveals present- day continuation of the handicraft industries of painting (Plate 11), textiles, paper-cutting, papier mache, and of course pottery in the neighbouring town of Shiwan. The famed Ancestral Temple (in) a short distance from the Overseas Chinese Hotel, is full of the work of handicraft artists of the past, with excellent examples of metalwork (Plate 12), gilt wood carving (Plate 13), brick carving and papier mache, not to mention the rooftops which are covered with long and elaborate Shiwan pottery friezes (Plate 15).
The Shiwan potters' use of waste and inexpensive materials led to the development of a rather unique art esthetic. The use of all different types of waste materials, in addition to being economical, was perfectly suited to the development of a wide range of colourful and variegated flambe glazes, which indeed has been unequalled. Descriptive names such as "tiger skin", "leopard skin", "pomegra- nate red", "peacock's feather", "sesame seed", etc., were bequeath- ed according to colour and configuration. In addition, the inexpen- sive pottery clay with a high content of sand was much more pliable and suitable for sculpture than fragile porcelain clay. Taking ad- vantage of the nature of this material, the potters sculpted their vessels in high relief forms from plant and animal worlds (Plate 16).
The pliable pottery clay was also good for figure sculpture which became a Shiwan specialty. The potters soon found that if they left flesh areas unglazed, more detailed and warm human expression would result. For subject matter they drew on a wide range of characters from folklore, history and religion as well as the com- mon man, in each case attempting to distill the nature of the indivi- dual into a small size artistic creation. Anatomic exactness was sometimes deliberately altered to better convey spirit.10 (Plate 7).
The superiority of Shiwan pottery sculpture over that of porce- lain was recognized when in the late 1920's three of Shiwan's best artists, Pan Yushu (**), Chen Weiyan () and Chen Zhi (*), were invited to the Jingdezhen ( ✯ {1⁄2§4 ) porcelain potteries to sculpt figures. According to Silva Mendes, Macau barrister and Shiwan collector, who personally knew the potters, the results were not good because porcelain is not as adequate a material as clay for this type of work, (i.e. sculpture). A porcelain figure of the goddess Guan Yin (†) in a private Macau collection with the mark of Shiwan potter Chen Weiyan, verifies this point, displaying
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