Furthermore by getting details of the works you will give you a feel of the background of the works, and comparing them directly you will get a taste not only of the artistic styles of the time, but a taste of the Greek and the Chinese culture. This vase made up of stoneware, cizhuo type, with sgraffito to decoration. The Meiping vase was originally used as a wine vessel, but since the Song dynasty it became popular as a plum vase and got its name “Meiping”. The pottery of the Geometric kratar is from the Dippylon cemetery in the Greek time period; with the size of 3’4 1/2″ located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.
The Greek culture vase is modified as a funerary krater featuring a mourning and procession in honor the deceased. The Chinese Meiping vase and the Greek Geometric krater is the evidence of the life during the time periods in the particular culture. Their use of techniques and the reasons they made pottery vases was the upbringings of life during the Greeks and the Chinese cultures. Throughout the history of Greece and the Chinese culture both vases are unique but have awesome background which leads up towards their making.
In the Northern song period (which the Meiping vase was made) some emperors took direct interest in the painters that attended the imperial painting academy. However, song ceramics where commonly used for elegant shapes in pottery. On the other hand, in the Greek culture to shape their pottery. It starts off when the disappearance of powerful kings and their retinues led to loss of the knowledge of how to cut masonry, to construct citadels, tombs, paint frescoers, and to sculpt in stone.
This figure may refer to the military exploits of the deceased; however, as hourglass shields and chariots played a more limited role at this time than in the earlier Bronze Age, the scene more likely evokes the glorious ancestry and traditions to which the dead man belonged. Despite the artistic beauty of the two works both were made for more than just decoration. Many potters used different techniques on creating the vases. First glance of the two vases, one can tell that they were crafted I different styles, giving a distinct to study each.
However, both vases are temperature in the kin for about 1500 degrees farenheith. Furthermore, both vases seem to have been rotated manually by the potter. From the looks of the vases the potters seem to forms a depression in the middle of the vase. The potters for both vases form a desired overall shape which is an oval in order for the vessel to stand. Both of the two arts have the same shape in the shape in the body of the vase. The artists use the oval techniques on both vases to give people more and more.
For instance, those two vases can be used for storing water and with the large body oval shaped that can provide large amounts of water. Both are symmetrical, because they both have handles but the krater handle is on the bottom and the Meiping vase handle is on the top. This handle type shows you how potters wanted their vases to be used. The krater handle was used for standing and while the Meiping vase handle was used for pouring. However, there are many features that set these two images apart. The Meiping vase has stoneware like clay body, which is brown in color.
Onto this, a white slip was first painted, then a black slip. Next the potter would carve the designs through the black slip to reveal the white, and then a clear glaze would be applied, which, after firing, would allow the black and white design to show. This example is quite representative, and the bold, floral design on peonies and leaves is often seen. The peony motif is often seen in Chinese art, and is considered a symbol of royalty since the name of the peony in Chinese is a homophone for the word for wealth and rank. For instance, in English would be the words: flower and flour, they sound the same, but have different eanings.
This particular shape is called a Meiping (plum blossom) vase. Its graceful proportions begin with a flat base, which immediately narrows slightly, then swells confidently to the shoulder before narrowing in to a rather small neck. However, in the Geometric krater the mouth on the vase is larger than the mouth on the Meiping vase. This large mouth on the krater vase could indicate that the use of water or the amounts determined how much water supply they needed during their time period. The artist covers mostly the krater with paint abstracted in horizontal and vertical like lines.
The krater content on the vase shows where the artist used charcoal sketches such as a guide to embed the human and animal figures. The details of the krater vase are interior lines which are incised through the slip revealing the lighter colored clay below. Also, in the krater vase the potter used additional red ochre clay to add more details on the human figures. From the looks of the geometric krater looks like the clay and iron oxide was implied to duplicate the animals, objects, and the patterns in the vase as a technique to make the vase more diligent.
The vases have significant meanings and reasons they were made to leave a remark of their time period. The Meiping vase purpose of such a small-necked vase was to display a single spray or branch from a flowering plum tree. Many fruit trees flower before they leaf out in the spring, and the plum tree presents spectacular flowers against a bare branch. Cizhou ware was produced primarily for use by ordinary people as opposed to use by royalty. Overall, the krater vase was created to pay respect to the decease.
Throughout, the vase there is funerary representations. The composition shows prosthesis; which a ritual in Greek who practice the dead, It shows the reasons it was made by showing the deceased laid upon a bier surrounded by members of his household and, at either side, mourners. For optimal clarity, the dead man is shown on his side, and the checkered shroud that would normally cover the body has been raised and regularized into a long rectangle with two projections. The zone below shows a procession of chariots and foot soldiers.
Both of the vases have similarities based on the things the images shows. The geometric krater is a funerary scene and the Meiping vase has flowers which indicate a plum tree which can mean bring new life or new upbringings. In conclusion, throughout history there has been remarkable art and proven facts that potters used techniques and reasons they create such vases. The Meiping small mouth neck vase was use to pick from a plum tree. In difference, the geometric krater used funerary scenes to remember the death of loved ones.
