Imperial Porcelains from the Reigns of Hongzhi and Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty: A Comparison of Porcelains from the Imperial Kiln Site at Jingdezhen and Imperial Collection of the Palace Museum
Dates: 29.9.2017-28.2.2018
Opening hours: 8:30-17:00 (closed on Mondays)
Location: Hall for Abstinence (Zhai gong), Palace Museum, China
Address: 4 Jingshan Qian Road, Dongcheng District, Beijing, China
Website: Official web page
The reigns of the Hongzhi Emperor (r. 1488-1505) and the Zhengde Emperor (1506-1521) are the watershed of the Ming-dynasty’s social and cultural changes at the turn of the sixteenth century. The stifling conservativeness gave way to dynamic innovation. A penchant for wealth replaced previous admiration for unsophisticated simplicity. Imperial porcelains from the two reigns share some commonalities including the shrinking scale of production, plummeting variety, and the relative austerity in terms of decoration. For this reason, ceramic objects of the two dynasties are displayed together in this exhibition in five parts –
Freshness & Elegance: Blue-and-White Porcelain and Underglaze Red Porcelain;
II. Lightness & Beauty: Polychrome Porcelain and Doucai Porcelain;
III. Colorful Porcelain: Multi-Colored Glaze Porcelain and Plain Tricolor Porcelain;
IV. Uniformity & Pureness: Single Colored Glaze Porcelain;
V. Profundity of Influence: Chenghua Imperial Porcelain Imitated by Later Ages.