Rock and wave

The rock and wave design or motif is found painted in the outer borders of some Asian ceramics. It originated in Chinese porcelain of the Yuan dynasty, and was later very often used in Iznik pottery and other Turkish ceramics.[1] It represents turbulent waves breaking onto rocks, which are generally depicted as a regular pattern with a considerable degree of stylization, especially in the Turkish examples. It is normally in blue and white, even where other parts of the piece use other colours.

Top of Yuan dynasty vase, with rock and wave zone in middle
Ming dynasty, Yongle reign (1402–24)
Detail of Iznik pottery dish
Iznik pottery dish with the so-called Dollar pattern, c. 1550–1600

The "rocks" are represented by blue spiral lines on a white background, and the waves by irregular shapes in white, sometimes with lines within them.[2]

Turkish versions of the design were produced by c. 1500 if not earlier.[3] The Turkish designs are sometimes criticized as "poorly understood" versions of the Chinese motif,[4] and in many pieces the design seems to have lost the sense of the marine subject.

Terms

"Rock and wave" is a brusque Western version of the Chinese name pao-shan hai-shui, meaning "precious mountains and the sea". A related pattern, without the waves, is called the "rock of ages pattern"; there is also much decoration with just wave patterns. Another term used for the regular spiral motifs in Turkish pieces is "ammonite scrolls".[5]

In later Turkish ceramics, especially the 17th century, a version developed where the "rocks" were white spaces across the width of the border, and within them a blue or black scroll resembling a letter "S" on its side. These pieces are described in the West as using the dollar pattern, from the resemblance to the $ sign.[6]

History

Decoration representing waves had a considerable history in Chinese art in various media, often as a background for dragons and other sea monsters.[7] These tended to use groups of parallel lines, rising and falling, and passing into each other. Sometimes the waves had breaking crests, typically left in white.[8] Eventually these turned into the "rocks" of the standard border pattern.

Chinese influences on Islamic pottery were already considerable and of long standing before much of the Islamic world was briefly politically united with China in the Mongol Empire. Large quantities of Chinese pottery were sent as diplomatic gifts, and there was also considerable trade. Many Chinese wares were designed for Islamic needs and tastes, in particular the large flattish plates which suited Islamic dining customs, rather than the deeper bowls of different sizes used by the Chinese themselves. The development of blue and white pottery in China, with detailed underglaze painting in cobalt blue pigments from Iran is generally seen as a result of cross-fertilization of artisans and techniques from different parts of the empire.[9]

Fine Iznik wares closely imitating Chinese blue and white were produced from the 1520s onwards, taking as their models Chinese pieces from several decades earlier. This probably reflected both Ottoman taste, and the Chinese pieces available in Turkey, considerably boosted by the loot from Ottoman military campaigns that took Damascus and in 1514 Tabriz.[10]

  • Chinese wave background on a mid-15th-century Ming vase
  • Detail of a 15th-century Ming flask, with spirals
  • Qing-dynasty dish with dragon on wave background
  • Iznik "dollar pattern", 1580-1585

Notes
  1. Rawson, 141
  2. MWNF.org
  3. "Dish", British Museum
  4. "Dish with Peacock Design", Metropolitan Museum of Art, quoted; Rawson, 141
  5. Savage and Newman, 246
  6. Savage and Newman, 98
  7. Krahl and Harrison-Hall, 62, 80
  8. Rawson, 138–141
  9. Vainker, 136–140, 142, 180–181
  10. Vainker, 141–142

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rock and wave.
  • Krahl, Regina and Harrison-Hall, Jessica, Chinese Ceramics: Highlights of the Sir Percival David Collection, 2009, British Museum Press, ISBN 9780714124544
  • Rawson, Jessica, Chinese Ornament: The Lotus and the Dragon, 1984, British Museum Publications, ISBN 0714114316
  • Savage, George, and Newman, Harold, An Illustrated Dictionary of Ceramics, 1985, Thames & Hudson, ISBN 0500273804
  • Vainker, S.J., Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, 1991, British Museum Press, 9780714114705
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