Challenges and solutions: the ingenuity of the Yaozhou potters
The Sir Michael Butler Memorial Lecture
The Yaozhou kilns are usually associated with a type of celadon characterised by vivid designs carved or moulded under a transparent olive-green glaze made from the eleventh century. However, their history of technological challenges and solutions started much earlier and it shows the potters’ ingenuity in adapting to available materials and fashion trends, sometimes setting them.
Drawing on the Shang Shan Tang Collection and the exhibition Vivid Transparencies. Yaozhou wares from the Shang Shan Tang Collection held at the Museum of Oriental Art, Venice, the lecture presents the surprising trajectory of the Huangpuzhen kilns from their establishment in the Tang dynasty to their demise in the thirteenth century. It will also be the opportunity to reflect on key themes, such as the concept of a ‘signature’ product and its relation with other types of celadon, as well as other ceramic genres produced by the Yaozhou potters. Finally, the lecture will suggest future research topics related to the Yaozhou kilns in the context of Song ceramics.
Members do not need to book to attend this lecture.
5:30 pm – Society of Antiquaries opens for members’ refreshments
6:15 pm – Lecture begins
This lecture is sponsored by Katharine Butler with additional support from Woolley & Wallis
Image: Yaozhou bowl with appliqué design of a tortoise, 10th century, Shang Shan Tang Collection
Speaker
Professor Sabrina RastelliSabrina Rastelli is Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice where she has been teaching since 1999. Her research interests are focused on two main areas: the first is Chinese ceramics, especially from the Tang to the Yuan dynasty, with particular emphasis on their archaeology, technology and art history. Her PhD thesis (published as a book in 2008, The Yaozhou Kilns: A Re-evaluation) was entirely dedicated to Yaozhou ceramics. The second research area concerns the history of Chinese art, analysed and interpreted according to the contextualisation method. The first volume of this new history of Chinese art (from Neolithic times to the Tang dynasty) was published in 2016, while the second is under research. She has curated, co-curated or participated in the organisation of important exhibitions of ancient Chinese art: Cina. Nascita di un impero (2006), China at the court of the emperors. Unknown masterpieces from Han tradition to Tang elegance (25-907) (2008), Il Celeste Impero: dall’armata eterna alla Via della Seta (2008), I due imperi. L’aquila e il dragone (2010), Yeesookyung’s solo exhibition Whisper only to you (2019). She was consultant (and one of the authors) for the Greater China section for the Institute of the Italian Encyclopaedia Giovanni Treccani on Contemporary Art (2021). She has taught full courses at Peking University (2014, Early 20th Century Western Archaeologists in China: Their Cultural Environment and way of thinking), Hanoi University (2017, Archaeological Tourism: Italy, China and Vietnam) and Universität Zürich (2020, From Fire and Earth: Ceramic Stories from China).
