The Pilgrim Art: The Culture of Porcelain in World History

Abstract

For more than a millennium Chinese porcelain was the most universally admired and most widely imitated product in the world. It conveyed Chinese culture across vast distances, penetrated societies in manifold ways, and reshaped ceramic traditions throughout the Afro-Eurasian ecumene. As the principal material vehicle for the assimilation and transmission of artistic themes and designs, porcelain provides the first and most extensive material evidence for sustained cultural encounter on a worldwide scale, perhaps even for intimations of truly global culture.