Tang Dynasty Chinese Pottery
T'ang Dynasty cups (Musee Guimet, Paris)
About 700 AD in China, plain white porcelain pottery first begins to appear, like these cups and these bowls. Porcelain is a special kind of pottery; Chinese potters working under the T'ang Dynasty discovered that if you used a special kind of clay to make your pottery, it would have special qualities. The Chinese potters didn't know it yet, but what made this clay special was that it had a lot of kaolin in it. In addition, the Chinese potters fired this clay at very high temperatures, so hot that some of the clay melted and became like glass, shiny and translucent (light could shine through it).
But there were still other styles of pottery as well.
T'ang Dynasty clay camel, ca. 650 AD
(Musee Guimet, Paris)
There are also a lot of small clay sculptures like this one of a camel and another of a man riding a horse.
To find out more about Tang Dynasty art, check out these books from Amazon or from your library:
The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, by Jessica Rawson and others (1996). Rawson is a curator at the British Museum, and she uses the collection of the British Museum to illustrate this book. Library Journal calls it "easily the best introductory overview of Chinese art to appear in years".
Art in China (Oxford History of Art Series), by Craig Clunas (1997). Not specifically for kids, but a good introduction to the spirit of Chinese art. Warning: this one is not arranged in chronological order. Instead, it has chapters on sculpture, calligraphy, and so on.
Arts of the Tang Court, by Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky (1996). A brief introduction.
Why did people want to punch Socrates?
Where did Egyptians bury your liver?
How old are the Rocky Mountains?
What does a half-timbered house look like?
How do you spin wool?
(a project)
Tang Dynasty pottery
Sung Dynasty art
More on China in the T'ang Dynasty
Ancient China home
Kidipede home
