The Historical Motivations And Actual Significance Of The Rise Of Delft, Holland's Capital Of Pottery

Delft is Holland's capital of pottery, and it is also one of the most important centre of pottery production of Europe; to examine the art of porcelain in a particular region and the relative process of evolution in the big horizon of history and culture, to subsequently research the necessity of cultural exchange, as well as the process of acquisition of some kind of culture by another one, is extremely necessary, it doesn't only possess historical meaning, it also has an actual significance. This paper will adopt the form of intertwined vertical and horizontal research to inquire the historical process of the rise of Delft, research vertically and organize the thread of development process in the period of the rise of Delft as a capital of pottery, being seventeenth century the most important; research horizontally and choose the important facts of Delft inside the development process of seventeenth century to carry out an analysis of the historical cross section.The paper expounds the basic geographical and historical facts and the situation of pottery production of Delft, it examines the historical motivation for becoming poottery capital, which arose in the golden age of Holland's history, basically the seventeenth century, and the causes which prompted its rise, that come from different fields, like European"commercialism"and the sale and production of pottery, European"great geographical discoverings"and the big development of Dutch nautical industry, but even more the juncture of the importation in Europe of blue pattern Jingdezhen porcelain (Qinghua). The paper subsequently sets forth the development of Delft in Holland's golden century, essentially it has three steps, the first being the invention of Delftware, comprising the invention of Delftware gaze, its fabrication process and cultural implication, as well as the influence of Jingdezhen's Qinghua on Delftware; the second step is the constitution of the guild of pottery craftsmen, comprising the guild's basic situation and the important function of pottery craftsmen; the third step is the foundation of porcelain factories, comprising the integration of old and new forms of production and the harmonious combination of oriental and western style of decoration. Finally the paper inquires the actual significance of Delft's rise, it gives us at least a threefold inspiration: first, pottery culture needs to develop in syncretism, because the development of pottery often needs to borrow external forces, moreover cultural exchange is interactive and complementary; second, the innovation of pottery art and continuation of tradition can run side by side, because the change and not-change of pottery are the unity of opposition, the innovation of pottery art also often requires to take tradition as basis; third, the pottery art should develop toward humanism, because humanism is the quintessence of pottery culture, concretely, diversification is the best embodiment of pottery's endorsement of humanism.The world is a whole, being pottery art a worldwide cultural form, between pottery art of every nation and region do exist direct or indirect influences and connections. Wanting to develop pottery art of my Country, not to know the general situation of pottery in the world is unacceptable, this script aims to do some inquiries on making Chinese people aware about pottery of the world, it strives to contribute some reference material to nowadays Chinese pottery art.