Chinese Blue-and-White Porcelain vs Iznik Pottery
青花（中国の染付） / イズニク陶器
Both sit in Ceramic Styles, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Chinese Blue-and-White Porcelain
Cobalt blue brushed onto a white porcelain body, sealed under a clear glaze and fired once. Potters at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi established it during the Yuan dynasty by adding kaolin to the clay and improving their firing technology. Because the palette is held to a single colour, every gradation has to come from thin and thick washes and from shapes reserved in white.
Iznik Pottery
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The pottery reached by the Ottoman kilns, setting brilliant blue and red on a white body. Tulips and carnations turn in spirals around the curve of the vessel, and on the wall tiles of a mosque geometry and plant ornament coexist on a single surface.
| Chinese Blue-and-White Porcelain | Iznik Pottery | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 14th century– | 15th–17th century |
| Family | Ceramic Styles | Ceramic Styles |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | One blue on a white porcelain ground, with no second colour anywhere / A dark outline drawn first, then filled with paler washes that grade like ink painting / Motifs reserved in white against a densely painted blue ground / The painting sits under the glaze, so the surface stays smooth and no brushstroke stands proud | The brilliance of a white body under transparent glaze / Cobalt blue and a red that stands in relief / Spiralling plant ornament / A continuous composition turning around a curved surface |
| Best used for | Building tone in a one colour print by splitting the drawing into a dark outline pass and a pale wash pass · Making white read as figure rather than background by flooding the ground and reserving the letterforms | Turning a pattern around a curved surface without a break · Getting density and brilliance from a limited palette |
| Type | Set any inscription in the same blue and the same brush weight as the painting, never in an even mechanical line. | If you use lettering, run it as a band and give it the same rank as the ground pattern. |
| Composition | Divide the curved wall into bands at rim, body and foot, and vary density band by band. Leave a wide white margin around the main motif on the body. | Pair a composition radiating from the center with a band at the rim. |
| Material | A white body and cobalt oxide alone. Build two values, a dark drawn line and a pale wash, and lift motifs out of a flooded blue ground in reserve. All of it goes under a clear glaze and fires once. | Transparent glaze over a white body, with the red raised to give relief. |
| Caution | Treating the blue as one flat tone and skipping the graded washes turns the drawing into a printed screen tint and erases the brush. | Tiling the ornament flat loses the logic of the vessel. The handling of the curve and the rim is the pivot of the style. |