Glazed Dragon Tiles
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Glazed Dragon Tiles
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Glazed Dragon Tiles, Ming dynasty, 1480-1580. Shanxi, China.
Detail of ten glazed ceramic tiles from a group of twenty from two different buildings. The tiles were made of stoneware with fahua-type decoration, moulded with vigorous three-clawed dragons (one chasing a flaming pearl) cavorting among scrolling plants-lotus and peony. In the early 20th century they were arranged into four rows (or friezes) of five tiles each to form a screen.
The tiles are covered with blue, yellow and black glazes. The glaze is mainly composed of quartz. Iron, cobalt, and manganese are used as colorants and lead is used as a flux. The unique black glaze technology leads to determine that the origin of this set of dragon pattern glaze should be in Shanxi.
In the later years of the Ming dynasty (1488-1644), affluent men and women financed a building boom, constructing ancestral halls and Buddhist and Daoist temples across China. These large, high-relief ceramic tiles were made in sets to form a series of friezes showing blue and yellow dragons among lotuses. For many years they were part of a garden screen.
Originally, however, they ran along the ridge of a building in Shanxi province. The tiles supposedly protected the building from fire, as the dragon is auspicious and associated with control of the water supply.
More amazing images from Ancient Civilizations at https://weston-westmoreland.pixels.com/collections/ancient+civilizations
Weston Westmoreland
Uploaded
October 22nd, 2022
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