Know Famous Pottery

admin — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:25:32 +0000

You don’t have to be a historian to identify the famous pottery wares that have littered the history of man.

How about the soldiers of the Imperial Bodyguard, which are life-sized terra cotta human and horse figures that number to about 6,000 and were created in 210 BC for the tomb of Chinese Qin dynasty’s Emperor Qin Shihuangdi? Discovered in a burial mound in 197 in the northern province of Shaanxi, these famous pottery works of art have been featured in countless documentaries and even movies such as the recent The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

There also are the Gravettian figurines discovered at Dolni Vestonice, Czech Republic, one of which is the Venus of Dolni Vestonice (Věstonická Venuše), a nude female statuette. They are some of the earliest known pottery, dating back to 29,000 to 25,000 BC.

Famous pottery, which you may not be able to name but are important in the history of the art nonetheless, are those from the Jōmon people of Japan. They produced “cord-marked” vessels (the precise meaning of the term “Jōmon”) in around 10,500 BC by wrapping sticks with cords around clay vessels and figures, accounting for the image of their wares.

How about the vases made by the Greeks? They are by far the most sophisticated forms of early pottery, having survived in larger numbers compared to other ceramic groups of a comparable age.

And how about the Song dynasty pottery from the 10th to 13th century AD? They are one of the many pottery wares that were truly outstanding at that time of Chinese pottery history. They were simply shaped by elegant nonetheless, even more so with their glazes.

Even with just a little background in history, surfing the Internet, a couple of visits to the museum, or browsing your high school/college history textbook, you’ll be able to identify pieces that are quite well known.