The Aesthetic Qualities Of Coloured Flower And Bird Motifs From The Chang Sha Kiln Site During The Tang

The Changsha kilns were the most well-known commercial kilns of the Tang dynasty,producing mainly glazed ceramics painted floral designs employing decorative techniques derived not only from Chinese ink painting,calligraphy,printed textiles and sculpture,but expressive also of certain qualities typical of decorative techniques employed in Middle Eastern,Islamic and Buddhist art.Given to the beatific surrounds of Tang society and influenced by the specific cultures of the Xiang and Chu regions,along with by the poetic(xie-yi)principles underpinning strains of a freer-form flower and bird painting pursued by the then literati,the subjects portrayed and the decorative languages expressed in the products of the Changsha kiln site were enriched no end.Decorative motifs of flowers and birds are the most numerous in evidence among the products of the Changsha kilns.Their artistic expressivity,combined with the local aesthetic sensibility they express,can be seen as of particular artistic significance when considered in the changing historical contexts of flower and bird painting,imbuing these artefacts in a way with a certain sense of anachronism.The present dissertation attempts to analyse and explore the conditions and component elements which permitted the production of the flower and bird motifs found in Changsha's painted glazed ceramics,taking the subjects they depict,their formal qualities,relative distribution,technique and other topics,as means to explicate the aesthetic qualities and creative languages the artefacts embody.