Purity and Imitation: Chinese Porcelain and Global Copies
Class Year
2027
Document Type
Digital Project
Date of Creation
Fall 2025
Department 1
Art
Abstract
When we look at museum objects, we usually see just one thing at a time—a Chinese dish, an Ottoman plate, a wooden cup from the Andes. But between about 1500 and 1700, a lot of these objects were actually part of the same big conversation: how to make everyday vessels look powerful, expensive, and connected to faraway places. This StoryMap follows four places—China, the Ottoman Empire, the Netherlands, and the Inka world—to show how a white ceramic body, a blue painted line, or even a carved wooden cup could carry ideas across oceans. We’ll zoom in on flowers, dragons, calligraphy, and tiny geometric patterns so you can see how artists in different cultures saw the same things and then made them their own.
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Chen, Lee, "Purity and Imitation: Chinese Porcelain and Global Copies" (2025). Student Publications. 1188.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/1188
Comments
This work was created for ARTH 245: Art of the Global Renaissance.