Projects
PhD – project: The Brightness of Lacquerware: The Combination of Mother-of-Pearl and Imitating Lacquer Porcelain
Mother-of-Pearl(螺钿), is one of the typical inlaid materials of lacquer. It has glossy reflections like aurora borealis under different lights and viewpoints. The shape, color, texture, size, thickness, quantity, and layout of the inlay have also been meticulously designed by the craftsmen. Sometimes they were combined with other lacquer techniques such as multiple-jewel inlay, gilding, carving, and so on, which adds a unique sparkle based on polychrome decorations and makes the images break through the two-dimensional plane with a three-dimensional decorative effect similar to that of bas-reliefs.
Moreover, the mother-of-pearl inlaid has crossed different material carriers. For example, during the Kangxi period of the Qing dynasty in China, there was a kind of imitating lacquer porcelain, which inlaid mother-of-pearl in black lacquer texture over porcelain. It’s an interesting combination of different materials and decorative crafts.
This PhD project focuses on the mother-of-pearl in lacquerware inlaid decoration. What were the differences between Chinese and Japanese inlay techniques and their respective decorative styles during the Kangxi period (1662-1722)? What’s their arrangement logic of it? How did inlaid mother-of-pearl lacquer-imitation porcelain come into being? This project discusses the material, craft, and decorative patterns of mother-of-pearl. It talks about the imitation or competition of lacquer porcelain during the Qing period. Third, it concentrates on the imitated lacquer porcelain with inlaid decoration, and further digs into the trompe-l’oeil (‘trick of the eye’) of different materials and objects.
Xialing LIU
Utrecht University, Utrecht
Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing
Lacquer Screen inlaid Mother-of-pearl, Kangxi period in the Qing Dynasty, the end of the 17th Century, © The MET Museum, New York, 2001.76a–l.
Plate(detail) decorated with figures in a landscape,Lacquer noir burgauté sur porcelain,the Qing dynasty, Musée Guimet, Paris. Donation Emest Grandidier, 1894, G 1418. © Xialing LIU
Plate decorated with figures in a landscape, Lacquer noir burgauté sur porcelain, the Qing dynasty, Musée Guimet, Paris. Donation Emest Grandidier, 1894, G 1418. © Xialing LIU