page_title: Ceramic art
section_title: China
hierarchical_section_title: Ceramic art / History / Regional developments / China
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Ensemble de grès à couverte céladon. Chine du Sud, Zhejiang, Longquan, Dynastie des Song du Sud, 13ème siècle. Musée Guimet, Paris. English: Longquan celadons produced in Longquan, Zhejiang, China. It was made in the 13th century during Song Dynasty of China and is currently exhibited at Musée Guimet, Paris
context_page_description: 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, meaning "pottery", which in turn comes from keramos meaning "potter's clay". Most traditional ceramic products were made from clay, 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.
context_section_description: There is Chinese porcelain from the late Eastern Han period (100–200 CE), the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 CE), the Six Dynasties period (220–589 CE), 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 906 CE) 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 1,260 to 1,300 °C (2,300 to 2,370 °F). 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 (206–BCE – 220 CE).
  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 (1368–1644) 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.
caption: Chinese Longquan celadon, Song Dynasty, 13th century. Celadon was first made in China, and then exported to various parts of Asia and Europe.  Celadon became a favourite of various kings and monarchs, such as the Ottoman Sultans, because of its pristine beauty, its resemblance to Chinese jade, and the belief that the celadon would change its colour if the food or wine were poisoned.[39]
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