How the quest for the 'perfect blue' changed art forever

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The color blue has had a remarkable impact on the history of world trade. Rarely occurring in the natural world, blue pigments were, for centuries, highly sought-after by craftsmen and merchants.

This quest for the perfect blue has also transformed artistic traditions, from modern painting and jewelry to Turkish tilework, Persian glassware and Ming dynasty pottery.

It's a story explored in "The Blue Road," a Hong Kong exhibition whose title plays on the name given to ancient trade routes now known as the Silk Road.

Among the collection's many notable artifacts is a 17th-century blue-and-white dish depicting diving waterfowl amid plants and flowers. It's a style that has inspired innumerable imitations, and is now featured on everything from blue willow tea towels to porcelain door knobs.

But while the item's blue-and-white coloring is most commonly associated with imperial China, the dish was in fact produced in Persia. It's a gleaming illustration of how trade evolved and influenced the culture of both empires.

"Like other Safavid (Persian) blue and white examples, many features found on this dish are derived from contemporary Chinese prototypes," said Yuka Kadoi, the curator of the exhibition, which is housed at Hong Kong's Liang Yi Museum.

Trading cobalt for porcelain

China started importing cobalt, the element used to make early blue pigment, from Persia in the 14th century. But Ming-era Chinese elites initially frowned upon the blue and white ceramics now emblematic of their dynasty.

Kadoi notes that the Early Ming connoisseur Cao Zhao deemed them "vulgar." Emphasis was given to subtle glaze effects and graceful shapes, with blue designs judged to be too ornamental.

But with its associations of rarity and exoticism, cobalt blue soon became popular. Before long, factories at Jingdezhen, the birthplace of China's "white gold," were producing blue and white ceramics for domestic and international markets.

Among their customers were the Persians, admirers of the empire's luminous porcelain. They had access to cobalt, but were unable to produce the high-fired pottery themselves.

As such, the Persians began commissioning and importing blue and white ceramics from Chinese merchants -- meaning that China was buying the material, using it to make ceramics, and then sending them back at a profit.

Eventually, Persia started producing its own imitations of Chinese ceramics in the form of "fritware," a type of pottery made from powdered glass (of which the 17th-century dish is an example). In turn, the Persians themselves exported blue-and-white items -- this time to Europe.

"This change mainly occurred in the 16th century with the European exploration of Asia," said Kadoi. "Persian imitations of Chinese ceramics were made as cheap substitutes of porcelain for the European market.

"The birth of blue culture was a fascinating blend of different traditions coming not only from the Persian heartlands," she added, "but also, West Asia, East Asia, South Asia and Europe."

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