Artists › Sculptors
He Chaozong
Ming porcelain modeller of Dehua in Fujian, known for white-glazed figures of Guanyin and Bodhidharma stamped with his seal
In an open-air carving yard before a lake and hills, a heap of rough white stone blocks rises at the left, a mat holds a mallet and a row of chisels, unfinished horse figures stand at both sides, a small seated figure sits on a table, and a mason sits among the blocks.
Also known as Seal mark He Chaozong yin
- Roles
- Sculptors
He Chaozong was a porcelain modeller at Dehua in Fujian whose only early notice, in the Quanzhou prefectural gazetteer, is brief; scholars place his career roughly in the Jiajing to Wanli reigns. He modelled Buddhist and Daoist figures such as Guanyin, Bodhidharma and Maitreya, drawing on clay modelling, wood carving and stone carving to produce fluid drapery, and later Dehua potters imitated his manner as the He school. The Palace Museum in Beijing holds a white Dehua Guanyin crossing the sea impressed 'He Chaozong yin' and a seated white Guanyin with his mark, both standard examples of Dehua figure sculpture.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active c. Jiajing–Wanli reigns (1522–1620)