
wheel-thrown
stoneware bowl with blue glaze and purple splashes,
Jin dynasty, 1127–1234]]
tiles, which would have originally formed part of a much larger group]]
Ceramic art is art made from
ceramic materials, including
clay. It may take forms including artistic
pottery, including
tableware,
tiles,
figurines and other
sculpture. As one of the
plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the
visual arts. While some ceramics are considered
fine art, as pottery or sculpture, most are considered to be
decorative,
industrial or
applied art objects. Ceramics may also be considered
artefacts in
archaeology. Ceramic art can be made by one person or by a group of people. In a pottery or ceramic factory, a group of people design, manufacture and decorate the art ware. Products from a pottery are sometimes referred to as "art pottery". In a one-person pottery studio, ceramists or potters produce
studio pottery.
The word "ceramics" comes from the Greek ''keramikos'' (κεραμικος), meaning "pottery", which in turn comes from ''keramos'' (κεραμος) meaning "potter's clay". Most traditional ceramic products were made from
clay (or clay mixed with other materials), shaped and subjected to heat, and tableware and decorative ceramics are generally still made this way. In modern ceramic engineering usage, ceramics is the art and science of making objects from inorganic, non-metallic materials by the action of heat. It excludes
glass and
mosaic made from glass ''
tesserae''.
There is a long history of ceramic art in almost all developed cultures, and often ceramic objects are all the artistic evidence left from vanished cultures, like that of the
Nok in Africa over 2,000 years ago. Cultures especially noted for ceramics include the
Chinese,
Cretan,
Greek,
Persian,
Mayan,
Japanese, and
Korean cultures, as well as the modern Western cultures.
Elements of ceramic art, upon which different degrees of emphasis have been placed at different times, are the shape of the object, its decoration by painting, carving and other methods, and the glazing found on most ceramics.
Materials
Different types of
clay, when used with different
minerals and firing conditions, are used to produce earthenware, stoneware, porcelain and bone china (fine china).
*
Earthenware is
pottery that has not been fired to
vitrification and is thus permeable to water. Many types of pottery have been made from it from the earliest times, and until the 18th century it was the most common type of pottery outside the far East. Earthenware is often made from clay,
quartz and
feldspar.
Terracotta, a type of
earthenware, is a
clay-based unglazed or glazed
ceramic, where the fired body is porous. Its uses include vessels (notably
flower pots), water and waste water pipes, bricks, and surface embellishment in
building construction. Terracotta has been a common medium for ceramic art (
see below).
*
Stoneware is a
vitreous or semi-vitreous
ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-
refractory fire clay. Stoneware is fired at high temperatures.
Vitrified or not, it is nonporous; it may or may not be glazed. One widely recognised definition is from the
Combined Nomenclature of the European Communities, a European industry standard states "Stoneware, which, though dense, impermeable and hard enough to resist scratching by a steel point, differs from
porcelain because it is more
opaque, and normally only partially vitrified. It may be vitreous or semi-vitreous. It is usually coloured grey or brownish because of impurities in the clay used for its manufacture, and is normally glazed."
*
Porcelain is a
ceramic material made by heating materials, generally including
kaolin, in a
kiln to temperatures between . The toughness, strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of
pottery, arises mainly from
vitrification and the formation of the mineral
mullite within the body at these high temperatures.
Properties associated with porcelain include low
permeability and
elasticity; considerable
strength,
hardness,
toughness,
whiteness,
translucency and
resonance; and a high resistance to chemical attack and
thermal shock. Porcelain has been described as being "completely vitrified, hard, impermeable (even before glazing), white or artificially coloured, translucent (except when of considerable thickness), and resonant". However, the term ''porcelain'' lacks a universal definition and has "been applied in a very unsystematic fashion to substances of diverse kinds which have only certain surface-qualities in common".
*
Bone china (fine china) is a type of
soft-paste porcelain that is composed of
bone ash,
feldspathic material, and
kaolin. It has been defined as ''ware with a translucent body'' containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from animal bone and calculated calcium phosphate. Developed by English potter
Josiah Spode, bone china is known for its high levels of whiteness and translucency,
[Ozgundogdu, Feyza Cakir. "Bone China from Turkey" Ceramics Technical; May2005, Issue 20, p 29–32.] and very high mechanical strength and chip resistance.
Its high strength allows it to be produced in thinner cross-sections than other types of porcelain.
Like
stoneware it is
vitrified, but is translucent due to differing mineral properties. From its initial development and up to the later part of the twentieth century, bone china was almost exclusively an English product, with production being effectively localised in
Stoke-on-Trent.
['Trading Places.' R.Ware. ''Asian Ceramics''. November,2009, p.35,37-39.] Most major English firms made or still make it, including
Mintons,
Coalport,
Spode,
Royal Crown Derby,
Royal Doulton,
Wedgwood and
Worcester. In the UK, references to "china" or "porcelain" can refer to bone china, and "English porcelain" has been used as a term for it, both in the UK and around the world. Fine china is not necessarily bone china, and is a term used to refer to ware which does not contain bone ash.
Surface treatments
Painting
China painting, or porcelain painting is the decoration of glazed
porcelain objects such as plates, bowls, vases or statues. The body of the object may be
hard-paste porcelain, developed in China in the 7th or 8th century, or
soft-paste porcelain (often
bone china), developed in 18th-century Europe. The broader term ceramic painting includes painted decoration on
lead-glazed earthenware such as
creamware or
tin-glazed pottery such as
maiolica or
faience. Typically the body is first fired in a kiln to convert it into a hard porous
biscuit.
Underglaze decoration may then be applied, followed by
ceramic glaze, which is fired so it bonds to the body. The glazed porcelain may then be decorated with
overglaze painting and fired again at a lower temperature to bond the paint with the glaze. Decoration may be applied by brush or by
stenciling,
transfer printing,
lithography and
screen printing.
Slipware
Slipware is a type of
pottery identified by its primary decorating process where
slip is placed onto the leather-hard clay body surface before firing by dipping, painting or splashing. Slip is an aqueous suspension of a clay body, which is a mixture of
clays and other minerals such as
quartz,
feldspar and
mica. A coating of white or coloured slip, known as an engobe, can be applied to the article to improve its appearance, to give a smoother surface to a rough body, mask an inferior colour or for decorative effect. Slips or engobes can also be applied by painting techniques, in isolation or in several layers and colours.
Sgraffito involves scratching through a layer of coloured
slip to reveal a different colour or the base body underneath. Several layers of slip and/or sgraffito can be done while the pot is still in an unfired state. One colour of slip can be fired, before a second is applied, and prior to the scratching or incising decoration. This is particularly useful if the base body is not of the desired colour or texture.
Terra sigillata
In sharp contrast to the archaeological usage, in which the term ''terra sigillata'' refers to a whole class of pottery, in contemporary ceramic art, 'terra sigillata' describes only a watery refined slip used to facilitate the
burnishing of raw clay surfaces and used to promote carbon smoke effects, in both
primitive low temperature firing techniques and unglazed alternative western-style
Raku firing techniques. Terra sigillata is also used as a brushable decorative colourant medium in higher temperature
glazed ceramic techniques.
Forms
Studio pottery
Studio pottery is
pottery made by amateur or professional
artists or artisans working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs. Typically, all stages of manufacture are carried out by the artists themselves. Studio pottery includes functional wares such as
tableware,
cookware and non-functional wares such as
sculpture. Studio potters can be referred to as ceramic artists, ceramists, ceramicists or as an artist who uses clay as a medium. Much studio pottery is
tableware or
cookware but an increasing number of studio potters produce non-functional or sculptural items. Some studio potters now prefer to call themselves ceramic artists,
ceramists or simply artists. Studio pottery is represented by potters all over the world.
Tile
Pueblo (Native American), late 19th–early 20th century]]
A
tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as
ceramic,
stone, metal, or even
glass, generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops. Alternatively,
tile can sometimes refer to similar units made from lightweight materials such as
perlite,
wood, and
mineral wool, typically used for wall and ceiling applications. In another sense, a "tile" is a construction tile or similar object, such as rectangular counters used in playing games (see
tile-based game). The word is derived from the
French word ''tuile'', which is, in turn, from the
Latin word ''tegula'', meaning a roof tile composed of fired clay.
Tiles are often used to form wall
murals and floor coverings, and can range from simple square tiles to complex
mosaics. Tiles are most often made of
ceramic, typically glazed for internal uses and unglazed for roofing, but other materials are also commonly used, such as glass, cork,
concrete and other composite materials, and stone. Tiling stone is typically marble, onyx, granite or slate. Thinner tiles can be used on walls than on floors, which require more durable surfaces that will resist impacts.
Figurines

A
figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') is a statuette that represents a
human,
deity,
legendary creature, or
animal. Figurines may be realistic or
iconic, depending on the skill and intention of the creator. The earliest were made of stone or clay. In ancient Greece, many figurines were made from terracotta (see
Greek terracotta figurines). Modern versions are made of ceramic, metal, glass, wood and plastic.
Figurines and
miniatures are sometimes used in
board games, such as
chess, and tabletop
role playing games. Old figurines have been used to discount some historical theories, such as the
origins of chess.
Tableware
Tableware is the dishes or dishware used for setting a table, serving food and dining. It includes
cutlery,
glassware, serving dishes and other useful items for practical as well as decorative purposes.
Dishes, bowls and cups may be made of ceramic, while cutlery is typically made from metal, and glassware is often made from glass or other non-ceramic materials. The quality, nature, variety and number of objects varies according to culture, religion, number of diners,
cuisine and occasion. For example, Middle Eastern, Indian or Polynesian food culture and cuisine sometimes limits tableware to serving dishes, using bread or leaves as individual plates. Special occasions are usually reflected in higher quality tableware.
Terracotta (artworks)
In addition to being a material, "terracotta" also refers to items made out of this material. In
archaeology and
art history, "terracotta" is often used to describe objects such as statures, and figurines not made on a
potter's wheel. A prime example is the
Terracotta Army, a collection of man-sized
terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of
Qin Shi Huang, the first
Emperor of China. It is a form of
funerary art buried with the emperor in 210209BCE and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife.
French sculptor
Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse made many terracotta pieces, but possibly the most famous is
The Abduction of Hippodameia depicting the Greek mythological scene of a centaur kidnapping Hippodameia on her wedding day. American architect
Louis Sullivan is well known for his elaborate
glazed terracotta ornamentation, designs that would have been impossible to execute in any other medium. Terracotta and tile were used extensively in the town buildings of Victorian
Birmingham, England.
History
There is a long history of ceramic art in almost all developed cultures, and often ceramic objects are all the artistic evidence left from vanished cultures, like that of the
Nok in Africa over 3,000 years ago.
[Breunig, Peter. 2014. Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context: p. 21.] Cultures especially noted for ceramics include the
Chinese,
Cretan,
Greek,
Persian,
Mayan,
Japanese, and
Korean cultures, as well as the modern Western cultures. There is evidence that pottery was independently invented in several regions of the world, including East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Near East, and the Americas.
Paleolithic pottery (c. 20,000 BP)

Although pottery figurines are found from earlier periods in Europe, the oldest pottery vessels come from East Asia, with finds in China and Japan, then still linked by a land bridge, and some in what is now the
Russian Far East, providing several from 20,00010,000BCE, although the vessels were simple utilitarian objects.
Xianrendong Cave in
Jiangxi province contained pottery fragments that date back to 20,000 years ago.
These early pottery containers were made well before the
invention of agriculture, by mobile foragers who hunted and gathered their food during the Late Glacial Maximum.
Many of the pottery fragments had scorch marks, suggesting that the pottery was used for cooking.
Before Neolithic pottery: stone containers (12,000–6,000 BC)
Many remarkable containers were made from stone before the invention of pottery in
Western Asia (which occurred around 7,000 BC), and before the
invention of agriculture. The
Natufian culture created elegant stone mortars during the period between 12,000 and 9,500 BC. Around 8000 BC, several early settlements became experts in crafting beautiful and highly sophisticated containers from stone, using materials such as
alabaster or
granite, and employing sand to shape and polish. Artisans used the veins in the material to maximize visual effect. Such object have been found in abundance on the upper
Euphrates river, in what is today eastern Syria, especially at the site of
Bouqras. These form the early stages of the development of the
Art of Mesopotamia.
File:Eynan Epipaleolithic mortar.jpg|Stone mortar from Eynan, Natufian period, 12,500-9,500 BC
File:Calcite tripod vase, mid-Euphrates probably from Tell Buqras, 6000 BCE, Louvre Museum AO 31551.jpg|Calcite tripod vase, mid-Euphrates, probably from Tell Buqras, 6,000 BC, Louvre Museum AO 31551
File:Alabaster pot Mid-Euphrates region 6500 BCE Louvre Museum.jpg|Alabaster pot Mid-Euphrates region, 6,500 BC, Louvre Museum
File:Alabaster pot, Mid-Euphrates region 6500 BCE Louvre Museum.jpg|Alabaster pot, Mid-Euphrates region, 6,500 BC, Louvre Museum
Neolithic pottery (6,500–3,500 BC)

Early pots were made by what is known as the "coiling" method, which worked the clay into a long string that wound to form a shape that later made smooth walls. The
potter's wheel was probably invented in
Mesopotamia by the 4th millennium BCE, but spread across nearly all Eurasia and much of Africa, though it remained unknown in the
New World until the arrival of Europeans. Decoration of the clay by incising and painting is found very widely, and was initially geometric, but often included figurative designs from very early on.
So important is pottery to the archaeology of prehistoric cultures that many are known by names taken from their distinctive, and often very fine, pottery, such as the
Linear Pottery culture,
Beaker culture,
Globular Amphora culture,
Corded Ware culture and
Funnelbeaker culture, to take examples only from
Neolithic Europe (approximately 70001800BCE).
Ceramic art has generated many styles from its own tradition, but is often closely related to contemporary sculpture and metalwork. Many times in its history styles from the usually more prestigious and expensive art of metalworking have been copied in ceramics. This can be seen in early Chinese ceramics, such as pottery and ceramic-wares of the Shang Dynasty, in Ancient Roman and Iranian pottery, and
Rococo European styles, copying contemporary silverware shapes. A common use of ceramics is for "pots" - containers such as bowls, vases and
amphorae, as well as other tableware, but figurines have been very widely made.
Ceramics as wall decoration
The earliest evidence of glazed brick is the discovery of glazed bricks in the
Elamite Temple at
Chogha Zanbil, dated to the 13th century BCE. Glazed and coloured bricks were used to make low reliefs in Ancient
Mesopotamia, most famously the
Ishtar Gate of
Babylon (), now partly reconstructed in
Berlin, with sections elsewhere. Mesopotamian craftsmen were imported for the palaces of the
Persian Empire such as
Persepolis. The tradition continued, and after the Islamic conquest of Persia coloured and often painted glazed bricks or tiles became an important element in
Persian architecture, and from there spread to much of the Islamic world, notably the
İznik pottery of
Turkey under the
Ottoman Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Using the
lusterware technology, one of the finest examples of medieval Islamic use of ceramics as wall decoration can be seen in the
Mosque of Uqba also known as the Great Mosque of kairouan (in
Tunisia), the upper part of the
mihrab wall is adorned with polychrome and monochrome lusterware tiles; dating from 862 to 863, these tiles were most probably imported from Mesopotamia.
Transmitted via Islamic Spain, a new tradition of
Azulejos developed in Spain and especially
Portugal, which by the
Baroque period produced extremely large painted scenes on tiles, usually in blue and white.
Delftware tiles, typically with a painted design covering only one (rather small) tile, were ubiquitous in the Netherlands and widely exported over Northern Europe from the 16th century on. Several 18th-century royal palaces had porcelain rooms with the walls entirely covered in porcelain. Surviving examples include ones at
Capodimonte, Naples, the
Royal Palace of Madrid and the nearby
Royal Palace of Aranjuez. Elaborate
cocklestoves were a feature of rooms of the middle and upper-classes in Northern Europe from the 17th to 19th centuries.
There are several other types of traditional tiles that remain in manufacture, for example, the small, almost mosaic, brightly coloured
zellige tiles of
Morocco. With exceptions, notably the
Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, tiles or glazed bricks do not feature largely in East Asian ceramics.
Regional developments
Although pottery figurines are found from earlier periods in Europe, the oldest pottery vessels come from East Asia, with finds in China and Japan, then still linked by a land bridge, and some in what is now the
Russian Far East, providing several from between 20,000 and 10,000 BCE, although the vessels were simple utilitarian objects.
Xianrendong Cave in
Jiangxi province contained pottery fragments that date back to 20,000 years ago.
Cambodia
Recent archaeological excavations at
Angkor Borei (in southern Cambodia) have recovered a large number of ceramics, some of which probably date back to the prehistoric period. Most of the pottery, however, dates to the pre-Angkorian period and consists mainly of pinkish terracotta pots which were either hand-made or thrown on a wheel, and then decorated with incised patterns.
Glazed wares first appear in the archaeological record at the end of the 9th century at the Roluos temple group in the Angkor region, where green-glazed pot shards have been found. A brown glaze became popular at the beginning of the 11th century and brown-glazed wares have been found in abundance at Khmer sites in northeast Thailand. Decorating pottery with animal forms was a popular style from the 11th to 13th century. Archaeological excavations in the
Angkor region have revealed that towards the end of Angkor period production of indigenous pottery declined while there was a dramatic increase in Chinese ceramic imports.
Direct evidence of the shapes of vessels is provided by scenes depicted on bas-reliefs at Khmer temples, which also offer insight into domestic and ritualistic uses of the wares. The wide range of utilitarian shapes suggest the Khmers used ceramics in their daily life for cooking, food preservation, carrying and storing liquids, as containers for medicinal herbs, perfumes and cosmetics.
China
There is
Chinese porcelain from the late
Eastern Han period (100200CE), the
Three Kingdoms period (220280CE), the
Six Dynasties period (220589CE), and thereafter. China in particular has had a continuous history of large-scale production, with the Imperial factories usually producing the best work. The
Tang Dynasty (618 to 906CE) is especially noted for
grave goods figures of humans, animals and model houses, boats and other goods, excavated (usually illegally) from graves in large numbers.
Some experts believe the first true porcelain was made in the
province of
Zhejiang in
China during the
Eastern Han period.
Shards recovered from archaeological Eastern Han kiln sites estimated firing temperature ranged from .
[He Li, (1996). ''Chinese Ceramics. The New Standard Guide''. Thames and Hudson, London. .] As far back as 1000 BCE, the so-called "porcelaneous wares" or "proto-porcelain wares" were made using at least some
kaolin fired at high temperatures. The dividing line between the two and ''true porcelain wares'' is not a clear one. Archaeological finds have pushed the dates to as early as the
Han Dynasty (206BCE220CE).
[Temple, Robert K.G. (2007). ''The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery, and Invention'' (3rd edition). London: André Deutsch, pp. 103–6. ]
The Imperial porcelain of the
Song Dynasty (960–1279), featuring very subtle decoration shallowly carved by knife in the clay, is regarded by many authorities as the peak of
Chinese ceramics, though the large and more exuberantly painted ceramics of the
Ming Dynasty (13681644) have a wider reputation.
Chinese emperors gave ceramics as diplomatic gifts on a lavish scale, and the presence of Chinese ceramics no doubt aided the development of related traditions of ceramics in Japan and
Korea in particular.
Until the 16th century, small quantities of expensive
Chinese porcelain were imported into Europe. From the 16th century onwards attempts were made to imitate it in Europe, including
soft-paste and the
Medici porcelain made in
Florence. None was successful until a recipe for
hard-paste porcelain was devised at the
Meissen factory in
Dresden in 1710. Within a few years, porcelain factories sprung up at
Nymphenburg in
Bavaria (1754) and
Capodimonte in
Naples (1743) and many other places, often financed by a local ruler.
Japan
incense burner from the
Goryeo Dynasty with Korean kingfisher glaze. National Treasure No.95 of South Korea]]
The earliest Japanese pottery was made around the 11th millennium BCE.
Jōmon ware emerged in the 6th millennium BCE and the plainer
Yayoi style in about the 4th century BCE. This early pottery was soft earthenware, fired at low temperatures. The potter's wheel and a
kiln capable of reaching higher temperatures and firing stoneware appeared in the 3rd or 4th centuries CE, probably brought from China via the Korean peninsula. In the 8th century, official kilns in Japan produced simple, green
lead-glazed earthenware. Unglazed stoneware was used as funerary jars, storage jars and kitchen pots up to the 17th century. Some of the kilns improved their methodsmil From the 11th to the 16th century, Japan imported much porcelain from China and some from Korea. The Japanese overlord
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's attempts to conquer China in the 1590s were dubbed the "Ceramic Wars"; the emigration of Korean potters appeared to be a major cause. One of these potters,
Yi Sam-pyeong, discovered the raw material of porcelain in Arita and produced first true porcelain in Japan.
In the 17th century, conditions in China drove some of its potters into Japan, bringing with them the knowledge to make refined porcelain. From the mid-century, the
Dutch East India Company began to import Japanese porcelain into Europe. At this time,
Kakiemon wares were produced at the factories of
Arita, which had much in common with the Chinese
Famille Verte style. The superb quality of its
enamel decoration was highly prized in the West and widely imitated by the major European porcelain manufacturers. In 1971 it was declared an important "intangible cultural treasure" by the
Japanese government.
In the 20th century, interest in the art of the village potter was revived by the
Mingei folk movement led by potters
Shoji Hamada, Kawai Kajiro and others. They studied traditional methods in order to preserve native wares that were in danger of disappearing. Modern masters use ancient methods to bring pottery and porcelain to new heights of achievement at
Shiga,
Iga,
Karatsu,
Hagi, and
Bizen. A few outstanding potters were designated living cultural treasures (''mukei bunkazai'' 無形文化財). In the old capital of
Kyoto, the
Raku family continued to produce the rough
tea bowls that had so delighted connoisseurs. At
Mino, potters continued to reconstruct the classic formulas of Momoyama-era Seto-type tea wares of Mino, such as
Oribe ware. By the 1990s many master potters worked away from ancient kilns and made classic wares in all parts of Japan.
Korea
Korean pottery has had a continuous tradition since simple
earthenware from about 8000 BCE. Styles have generally been a distinctive variant of Chinese, and later Japanese, developments. The ceramics of the
Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392) and early
Joseon white porcelain of the following dynasty are generally regarded as the finest achievements.
Western Asia and the Middle East
Islamic pottery

From the 8th to 18th centuries,
glazed ceramics was important in
Islamic art, usually in the form of elaborate
pottery, developing on vigorous Persian and Egyptian pre-Islamic traditions in particular.
Tin-opacified glazing was developed by the Islamic potters, the first examples found as blue-painted ware in
Basra, dating from about the 8th century. The Islamic world had contact with China, and increasingly adapted many Chinese decorative motifs. Persian wares gradually relaxed Islamic restrictions on figurative ornament, and painted figuratives scenes became very important.
Stoneware was also an important craft in Islamic pottery, produced throughout Iraq and Syria by the 9th century.
Pottery was produced in
Raqqa,
Syria, in the 8th century.
Other centers for innovative ceramics in the Islamic world were
Fustat (near modern
Cairo) from 975 to 1075,
Damascus from 1100 to around 1600 and
Tabriz from 1470 to 1550.
The
albarello form, a type of
maiolica earthenware jar originally designed to hold
apothecaries' ointments and dry drugs, was first made in the Islamic Middle East. It was brought to Italy by
Hispano-Moresque traders; the earliest Italian examples were produced in Florence in the 15th century.
Iznik pottery, made in western
Anatolia, is highly decorated ceramics whose heyday was the late 16th century under the
Ottoman sultans. Iznik vessels were originally made in imitation of
Chinese porcelain, which was highly prized. Under
Süleyman the Magnificent (1520–66), demand for Iznik wares increased. After the conquest of
Constantinople in 1453, the
Ottoman sultans started a programme of building, which used large quantities of Iznik tiles. The
Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul (built 1609–16) alone contains 20,000 tiles and tiles were used extensively in the
Topkapi Palace (commenced 1459). As a result of this demand, tiles dominated the output of the Iznik potteries.
Europe
Early figurines
The earliest known ceramic objects are the
Gravettian figurines from the
Upper Paleolithic period, such as those discovered at Dolní Věstonice in the modern-day
Czech Republic. The
Venus of Dolní Věstonice (Věstonická Venuše in Czech) is a statuette of a nude female figure dating from some time from 29,00025,000 BCE. It was made by moulding and then firing a mixture of clay and powdered bone. Similar objects in various media found throughout Europe and Asia and dating from the Upper Paleolithic period have also been called
Venus figurines. Scholars are not agreed as to their purpose or cultural significance.
The ancient Mediterranean

Glazed
Egyptian faience dates to the third millennium BCE), with painted but unglazed
pottery used even earlier during the
predynastic Naqada culture.
Faience became sophisticated and produced on a large scale, using moulds as well modelling, and later also throwing on the wheel. Several methods of glazing were developed, but colours remained largely limited to a range in the blue-green spectrum.
On the Greek
island of
Santorini are some of the earliest finds created by the
Minoans dating to the third millennium BCE, with the original settlement at
Akrotiri dating to the fourth millennium BCE; excavation work continues at the principal
archaeological site of Akrotiri. Some of the excavated homes contain huge ceramic storage jars known as ''
pithoi''.
Ancient
Greek and
Etruscan ceramics are renowned for their figurative painting, especially in the
black-figure and
red-figure styles. Moulded
Greek terracotta figurines, especially
those from Tanagra, were small figures, often religious but later including many of everyday genre figures, apparently used purely for decoration.
Ancient Roman pottery, such as
Samian ware, was rarely as fine, and largely copied shapes from metalwork, but was produced in enormous quantities, and is found all over Europe and the Middle East, and beyond.
Monte Testaccio is a
waste mound in Rome made almost entirely of broken
amphorae used for transporting and storing liquids and other products. Few vessels of great artistic interest have survived, but there are very many small figures, often incorporated into oil lamps or similar objects, and often with religious or erotic themes (or both together – a Roman speciality). The Romans generally did not leave grave goods, the best source of ancient pottery, but even so they do not seem to have had much in the way of luxury pottery, unlike
Roman glass, which the elite used with gold or silver tableware. The more expensive pottery tended to use relief decoration, often moulded, rather than paint. Especially in the Eastern Empire, local traditions continued, hybridizing with Roman styles to varying extents.
Tin-glazed pottery
thumb|Ming Dynasty (13681644 CE) blue-and-white porcelain dish from the reign of the [[Jiajing Emperor (15211567 CE)[[Nanjing Museum]] collections]]
[[tin-glazing|Tin-glazed]] pottery, or faience, originated in [[Iraq]] in the 9th century, from where it spread to Egypt, Persia and Spain before reaching [[Italy]] in the [[Renaissance]],
Holland in the 16th century and
England,
France and other European countries shortly after. Important regional styles in Europe include:
Hispano-Moresque,
maiolica,
Delftware, and
English Delftware. By the
High Middle Ages the
Hispano-Moresque ware of
Al-Andaluz was the most sophisticated pottery being produced in Europe, with elaborate decoration. It introduced tin-glazing to Europe, which was developed in the
Italian Renaissance in maiolica. Tin-glazed pottery was taken up in the Netherlands from the 16th to the 18th centuries, the potters making household, decorative pieces and tiles in vast numbers, usually with
blue painting on a white ground. Dutch potters took tin-glazed pottery to the British Isles, where it was made between about 1550 and 1800. In France, tin-glaze was begun in 1690 at
Quimper in Brittany, followed in
Rouen,
Strasbourg and
Lunéville. The development of white, or near white, firing bodies in Europe from the late 18th century, such as
Creamware by
Josiah Wedgwood and
porcelain, reduced the demand for Delftware, faience and majolica. Today, tin oxide usage in glazes finds limited use in conjunction with other, lower cost opacifying agents, although it is generally restricted to specialist low temperature applications and use by studio potters, including
Picasso who produced pottery using tin glazes.
Porcelain
Until the 16th century, small quantities of expensive
Chinese porcelain were imported into Europe. From the 16th century onwards attempts were made to imitate it in Europe, including
soft-paste and the
Medici porcelain made in
Florence. In 1712, many of the elaborate Chinese porcelain manufacturing secrets were revealed throughout Europe by the French Jesuit father Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles and soon published in the ''Lettres édifiantes et curieuses de Chine par des missionnaires jésuites'' After much experimentation, a recipe for
hard-paste porcelain was devised at the
Meissen porcelain factory in
Dresden soon after 1710, and was on sale by 1713. Within a few decades, porcelain factories sprung up at
Nymphenburg in
Bavaria (1754) and
Capodimonte in
Naples (1743) and many other places, often financed by a local ruler.
Soft-paste porcelain was made at
Rouen in the 1680s, but the first important production was at
St.Cloud, letters-patent being granted in 1702. The
Duc de Bourbon established a soft-paste factory, the
Chantilly porcelain, in the grounds of his
Château de Chantilly in 1730; a soft-paste factory was opened at
Mennecy; and the
Vincennes factory was set up by workers from Chantilly in 1740, moving to larger premises at Sèvres in 1756. The superior soft-paste made at Sèvres put it in the leading position in Europe in the second half of the 18th century. The first soft-paste in England was demonstrated in 1742, apparently based on the Saint-Cloud formula. In 1749 a patent was taken out on the first
bone china, subsequently perfected by
Josiah Spode. The main English porcelain makers in the 18th century were at
Chelsea,
Bow, St James's,
Bristol,
Derby and
Lowestoft.
Porcelain was ideally suited to the energetic
Rococo curves of the day. The products of these early decades of European porcelain are generally the most highly regarded, and expensive. The Meissen modeler
Johann Joachim Kaendler and
Franz Anton Bustelli of Nymphenburg are perhaps the most outstanding ceramic artists of the period. Like other leading modelers, they trained as sculptors and produced models from which moulds were taken.
By the end of the 18th century owning porcelain tableware and decorative objects had become obligatory among the prosperous middle-classes of Europe, and there were factories in most countries, many of which are still producing. As well as tableware, early European porcelain revived the taste for purely decorative figures of people or animals, which had also been a feature of several ancient cultures, often as
grave goods. These were still being produced in China as
blanc de Chine religious figures, many of which had reached Europe. European figures were almost entirely secular, and soon brightly and brilliantly painted, often in groups with a modelled setting, and a strong narrative element (see picture).
Wedgwood and the North Staffordshire Potteries
From the 17th century,
Stoke-on-Trent in North Staffordshire emerged as a major centre of pottery making. Important contributions to the development of the industry were made by the firms of
Wedgwood,
Spode,
Royal Doulton and
Minton.
The local presence of abundant supplies of coal and suitable clay for earthenware production led to the early but at first limited development of the local pottery industry. The construction of the
Trent and Mersey Canal allowed the easy transportation of
china clay from
Cornwall together with other materials and facilitated the production of
creamware and
bone china. Other production centres had a lead in the production of high quality wares but the preeminence of North Staffordshire was brought about by methodical and detailed research and a willingness to experiment carried out over many years, initially by one man, Josiah Wedgwood. His lead was followed by other local potters, scientists and engineers.
Wedgwood is credited with the
industrialization of the manufacture of
pottery. His work was of very high quality: when visiting his workshop, if he saw an offending vessel that failed to meet with his standards, he would smash it with his stick, exclaiming, "This will not do for Josiah Wedgwood!" He was keenly interested in the scientific advances of his day and it was this interest that underpinned his adoption of its approach and methods to revolutionize the quality of his pottery. His unique glazes began to distinguish his wares from anything else on the market. His matt finish
jasperware in two colours was highly suitable for the
Neoclassicism of the end of the century, imitating the effects of Ancient Roman
carved gemstone cameos like the
Gemma Augustea, or the
cameo glass Portland Vase, of which Wedgwood produced copies.
He also is credited with perfecting
transfer-printing, first developed in England about 1750. By the end of the century this had largely replaced hand-painting for complex designs, except at the luxury end of the market, and the vast majority of the world's decorated pottery uses versions of the technique to the present day. The perfecting of underglaze transfer printing is widely credited to Josiah Spode the first. The process had been used as a development from the processes used in book printing, and early paper quality made a very refined detail in the design incapable of reproduction, so early print patterns were rather lacking in subtlety of tonal variation. The development of machine made thinner printing papers around 1804 allowed the engravers to use a much wider variety of tonal techniques which became capable of being reproduced on the ware, much more successfully.
Far from perfecting underglaze print Wedgwood was persuaded by his painters not to adopt underglaze printing until it became evident that Mr Spode was taking away his business through competitive pricing for a much more heavily decorated high quality product.
Stoke-on-Trent's supremacy in pottery manufacture nurtured and attracted a large number of ceramic artists including
Clarice Cliff,
Susie Cooper,
Lorna Bailey,
Charlotte Rhead,
Frederick Hurten Rhead and
Jabez Vodrey.
Studio pottery in Britain
Studio pottery is made by artists working alone or in small groups, producing unique items or short runs, typically with all stages of manufacture carried out by one individual. It is represented by potters all over the world but has strong roots in Britain, with potters such as
Bernard Leach,
William Staite Murray,
Dora Billington,
Lucie Rie and
Hans Coper. Bernard Leach (1887–1979) established a style of pottery influenced by Far-Eastern and medieval English forms. After briefly experimenting with earthenware, he turned to
stoneware fired to high temperatures in large oil- or wood-burning kilns. This style dominated British studio pottery in the mid-20th-century. The Austrian refugee Lucie Rie (1902–1995) has been regarded as essentially a
modernist who experimented with new glaze effects on often brightly coloured bowls and bottles.
Hans Coper (1920–1981) produced non-functional, sculptural and unglazed pieces. After the Second World War, studio pottery in Britain was encouraged by the wartime ban on decorating manufactured pottery and the modernist spirit of the
Festival of Britain. The simple, functional designs chimed in with the modernist ethos. Several potteries were formed in response to this fifties boom, and this style of studio pottery remained popular into the nineteen-seventies.
Elizabeth Fritsch (1940-) took up ceramics working under
Hans Coper at the
Royal College of Art (1968–1971). Fritsch was one of a group of outstanding ceramicists who emerged from the Royal College of Art at that time. Fritschs' ceramic vessels broke away from traditional methods and she developed a hand built flattened coil technique in stoneware smoothed and refined into accurately profiled forms. They are then hand painted with dry matt slips, in colours unusual for ceramics.
Pottery in Germany
German pottery has its roots in the alchemistry laboratories searching for gold production.
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Royal Porcelain Factory, Berlin
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Meissen porcelain
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Nymphenburg porcelain
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Hutschenreuther
Pottery in Austria
In 1718 a pottery was founded in Vienna.
Pottery in Russia
The
Imperial Porcelain Manufacture was founded in 1744 in
Oranienbaum, Russia. It was based on the invention of porcelain by
D. I. Winogradow (independent from Böttgers invention 1708, Dresden). An important collection of antique porcelain is preserved in the
Russian Museum of Ceramics.
The Americas
Native American pottery
The people in North, Central, and South America continents had a wide variety of pottery traditions before Europeans arrived. The oldest ceramics known in the
Americasmade from 5,000 to 6,000 years agoare found in the Andean region, along the Pacific coast of
Ecuador at
Valdivia and Puerto Hormiga, and in the San Jacinto Valley of
Colombia; objects from 3,800 to 4,000 years old have been discovered in
Peru. Some archaeologists believe that ceramics know-how found its way by sea to
Mesoamerica, the second great cradle of civilization in the
Americas.
The best-developed styles found in the central and southern
Andes are the ceramics found near the ceremonial site at
Chavín de Huántar (800400BCE) and
Cupisnique (1000400BCE). During the same period, another culture developed on the southern coast of Peru, in the area called
Paracas. The Paracas culture (600100BCE) produced marvelous works of embossed ceramic finished with a thick oil applied after firing. This colorful tradition in ceramics and textiles was followed by the
Nazca culture (1600CE), whose potters developed improved techniques for preparing clay and for decorating objects, using fine brushes to paint sophisticated motifs. In the early stage of
Nazca ceramics, potters painted realistic characters and landscapes.
The
Moche cultures (1800CE) that flourished on the northern coast of modern Peru produced modelled clay sculptures and effigies decorated with fine lines of red on a beige background. Their pottery stands out for its
huacos portrait vases, in which human faces are shown expressing different emotionshappiness, sadness, anger, melancholyas well for its complicated drawings of wars, human sacrifices, and celebrations.
The
Maya were relative latecomers to ceramic development, as their ceramic arts flourished in the
Maya Classic Period, or the 2nd to 10th century. One important site in southern
Belize is known as
Lubaantun, that boasts particularly detailed and prolific works. As evidence of the extent to which these ceramic art works were prized, many specimens traced to Lubaantun have been found at distant Maya sites in
Honduras and
Guatemala. Furthermore, the current Maya people of Lubaantun continue to hand produce copies of many of the original designs found at Lubaantun.
In the United States, the oldest pottery dates to 2500BCE. It has been found in the
Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in
Jacksonville, Florida, and some slightly older along the
Savannah River in
Georgia.
The
Hopi in Northern Arizona and several other
Puebloan peoples including the
Taos,
Acoma, and
Zuñi people (all in the
Southwestern United States) are renowned for painted pottery in several different styles.
Nampeyo and her relatives created pottery that became highly sought after beginning in the early 20th century. Pueblo tribes in the state of
New Mexico have styles distinctive to each of the various pueblos (villages). They include
Santa Clara Pueblo,
Taos Pueblo,
Hopi Pueblos,
San Ildefonso Pueblo,
Acoma Pueblo and
Zuni Pueblo, amongst others. Some of the renowned artists of Pueblo pottery include:
Nampeyo, Elva Nampeyo, and
Dextra Quotskuyva of the Hopi;
Leonidas Tapia of San Juan Pueblo; and
Maria Martinez and
Julian Martinez of San Ildefonso Pueblo. In the early 20th century Martinez and her husband Julian rediscovered the method of creating traditional San Ildefonso Pueblo Black-on Black
pottery.
Mexican ceramics
Mexican ceramics are an ancient tradition.
Precolumbian potters built up their wares with pinching, coiling, or hammer-an-anvil methods and, instead of using glaze, burnished their pots.
Studio pottery in the United States
There is a strong tradition of studio artists working in ceramics in the United States. It had a period of growth in the 1960s and continues to present times. Many fine art, craft, and contemporary art museums have pieces in their permanent collections.
Beatrice Wood was an American artist and studio potter located in
Ojai, California. She developed a unique form of luster-glaze technique, and was active from the 1930s to her death in 1998 at 105 years old.
Robert Arneson created larger sculptural work, in an abstracted representational style. There are ceramics arts departments at many colleges, universities, and fine arts institutes in the
United States.
Sub-Saharan Africa
It appears that pottery was independently developed in Sub-Saharan Africa during the 10th millennium BC, with findings dating to at least 9,400 BC from central
Mali,
[ Simon Bradley, ''A Swiss-led team of archaeologists has discovered pieces of the oldest African pottery in central Mali, dating back to at least 9,400BC'']
, SWI swissinfo.ch – the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), 18 January 2007
Pottery in Sub-Saharan Africa is traditionally made by coiling and is fired at low temperature. The figurines of the ancient
Nok culture, whose function remains unclear, are an example of high-quality figural work, found in many cultures, such as
the Benin of Nigeria.
In the Aïr Region of
Niger (West Africa) (Haour 2003) pottery dating from around 10,000 BCE was excavated.
Ladi Kwali, a
Nigerian
potter who worked in the
Gwari tradition, made large pots decorated with incised patterns. Her work is an interesting hybrid of traditional African with western
studio pottery.
Magdalene Odundo is a
Kenyan-born
British studio potter whose ceramics are hand built and burnished.
Ceramics museums and museum collections
A
ceramics museum is a
museum wholly or largely devoted to
ceramics, normally ceramic artworks, whose collections may include
glass and
enamel as well, but will usually concentrate on
pottery, including
porcelain. Most national ceramics collections are in a more general museum covering all
the arts, or just the
decorative arts, but there are a number of specialized ceramics museums, some concentrating on the production of just one country, region or manufacturer. Others have international collections, which may concentrate on ceramics from Europe or East Asia, or have global coverage.
In Asian and Islamic countries ceramics are usually a strong feature of general and national museums. Also most specialist
archaeological museums, in all countries, have large ceramics collections, as pottery is the commonest type of
archaeological artifact. Most of these are broken
shards however.
Outstanding major ceramics collections in general museums include
The Palace Museum, Beijing, with 340,000 pieces, and the
National Palace Museum in
Taipei city, Taiwan (25,000 pieces); both are mostly derived from the Chinese Imperial collection, and are almost entirely of pieces from China. In London, the
Victoria and Albert Museum (over 75,000 pieces, mostly after 1400 CE) and
British Museum (mostly before 1400 CE) have very strong international collections. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and
Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC (12,000, all East Asian
[Peterson, 403]) have perhaps the best of the many fine collections in the large city museums of the United States. The
Corning Museum of Glass, in
Corning, New York, has more than 45,000 glass objects.
File:Ceramic male female joined nayarit.jpg|100 BCE250 CE
File:Egypte louvre 180 pot.jpg|Ancient Egyptian
File:NavdatoliGoblet1300BCE.jpg|Ceramic goblet from Navdatoli, Malwa, India, 1300 BCE; Malwa culture
File:Funerary Urn from Oaxaca.jpg|A funerary urn in the shape of a "bat god" or a jaguar, from Oaxaca, Mexico, dated to 300650 CE. Height: 9.5 in (23 cm).
File:ChateaudUsseMadonna.jpg|Luca della Robbia, ''Virgin and Child with John the Baptist''
File:Catherine Palace heater.jpg|18th century cocklestove in the Catherine Palace, St Petersburg
See also
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References
Citations
Sources
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External links
Ceramic from the Victoria & Albert Museum*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20160320125236/http://artsmia.org/art-of-asia/ceramics/ Minneapolis Institute of Arts: Ceramics – The Art of Asiabr>
Potweb Online catalogue & more from the Ashmolean MuseumStoke-on-Trent Museums – Ceramics OnlineRoyal Dutch Ceramics
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Art
Category:Art history by medium
Category:Pottery