The Applied and Decorative Arts of China.

The applied and decorative arts of China, one of the most ancient states of the world, distinguish themselves by variety and richness. They developed in close interaction with the cultures of other peoples. In its turn China influenced on the arts of Japan, Korea, Mongolia, the states of Indochina and other countries.

The Chinese art has rich and uneasy history of development. During 5 thousand years new forms and genres have been arising in Chinese art. The history of the Chinese culture is those, that it cannot be scrutinized separately from the previous periods.

The beginning of China as the state is identified with the period of Shang Dynasty (the 16^th-11^th centuries B.C.). The origin of writing, fixed symbols and the mythological images connected with nature, the further development of totemic beliefs reflected in the fine arts, are referred to the same period. Since the Shang epoch the development of Chinese ceramics has begun. Vessels were made on a potter's wheel or manually, some of them were decorated with geometrical or stylized ornaments. They say that at that time protoporcelain (протофарфор) originated (the stone mass containing non-purified kaolin, covered by glaze from feldspar, burnt at a high temperature).

The Han period (206 BC – AD 220) was especially fruitful in the sphere of fine art. In the 4^th century BC the mysterious symbolism of ancient vessels and bronze products were substituted by the new plots and themes where fantasy was mixed with real life motifes. During the Han period both painted ceramic vessels with bright geometrical ornament and monochrome ones with sculptural belts covered by green glaze were widely spread. As for the Han ceramics it was not only the painted pottery, but also the products covered with lead glaze and coloured with copper oxide in perfect green color. The typical form of vessels of that time reminds the form of bronze articles.

As for the jeweller’s art of the Han period, those were silver products both religious and utilitarian: bowls, cups, toilet articles. Bronze thin-walled vessels had simple, severe forms, almost deprived of ornaments. Products from bronze with a dash of noble metals were made for rich and notable families.

The 7^th-13^th centuries were the periods of developed feudalism and the highest flourishing of the Chinese medieval culture, when the two states – Tang (AD 618-907) and Song (AD 960-1279) - dominated. Those were the brilliant periods of culture when numerous kinds and genres of art were flourishing.

However the Mongols invasion (Yuan Dynasty, the 13^th-14^th centuries) devastated the country and damaged the economy and culture of China. The 14^th-17^th centuries when China had thrown off the Mongolian yoke were the time of especially intense struggle in the feudal society. At that historical period China was an advanced country in many aspects of life, and at the same time it lagged behind Europe in major areas of public relations, science and culture.

The end of the 18^th and the 19^th century were the time of a deep crisis in culture. However new art phenomena were arising in the weakened, ruined and enslaved country. The craftsmen of the Chinese Middle Ages had borrowed many skills, techniques and traditional forms of patterns from antiquity. Meanwhile the requests of a new historical epoch caused numerous innovative arts-and-crafts types and techniques. Love to color and beautiful materials, carefulness of the execution, the developed feeling of rhythm, tendency to dynamism and stylization, and also natural theme prevalence over the theme of the person are the characteristic features of decorative Chinese art.