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How did Cizhou potters use slip and painting to decorate stoneware?
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Chinese pottery
Painted Pottery funerary urn, Neolithic Banshan phase, c. 3000 bce, from Yangshao, Henan province, China; in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm. Height 13.2 inches (33.5 cm).
Cizhou potters utilized slip and painting techniques to create distinctive Chinese pottery during the Song dynasty and beyond. The process typically involved the following methods:
- Slip Application: Potters applied a coating of slip—a semiliquid clay—to the vessel's body before firing. This provided a light-colored background, such as white, cream, or buff, which served as a canvas for further decoration.1
- Brush Painting: Artists used bold, freehand brushwork to paint motifs in brown, black, or gray directly onto the slip-coated surface. Common designs included sketchy animals, birds, floral patterns, and motifs derived from popular songs or folk tales.12
- Sgraffito and Incision: Another decorative technique involved carving or scratching through a layer of slip to reveal the contrasting color of the clay body beneath.12
- Overglaze Painting: In addition to underglaze work, potters also employed painting over the glaze using low-fired colors, a technique that became more prevalent by the 14th century.2
These methods allowed Cizhou wares to feature a vigorous, spontaneous aesthetic that contrasted sharply with the restrained style of contemporary courtly ceramics.2