LookAtVietnam – Nguyen Thi Hoa smiles when she thinks of how her youthful beauty will be forever preserved on a piece of Bat Trang pottery decorated with her portrait. Her beauty may fade with age, but the colours in the portrait won’t.

Young and restless: Some of the portraits made on pottery in Bat Trang village.

People who want to preserve their images forever can only find a few materials that are up to the task. Even photos under a plastic cover fade with time, but 1,000-year-old pieces of pottery have been unearthed with their images intact.

“The artist copies a photo of the customer onto a piece of pottery. The product is then glazed and baked at a high temperature (about 1,200°C). When the oven reaches this temperature, the painting is ‘ripened’,” says Nguyen Tien Dat, owner of the Dat Tuyet pottery shop. At this temperature, the colour of the enamel becomes very clear and the toxins in the paint evaporate. Customers also have the option of sitting for an artist who will paint them directly onto the piece of pottery, but this takes more time.

Dat also says the art of portraiture on pottery can be found in many regions, but only Bat Trang Village artisans are faithful to the manual technique. Copying the picture on pottery by hand is a time-consuming affair.

Highly skilled

Because of the artistic skill required to paint the portraits, only three or four pottery ovens in Bat Trang Village are involved in the business. The artist must successfully preserve the “soul” of the customer when they draw them on pottery.

The art appeared several years ago but has only recently become popular. At first, many people thought that the craft was only for making portraits for altar worship. However, artisans in Bat Trang Village changed that perception by putting portraits on pottery for souvenirs and decoration.

A 20 by 30cm picture, including a frame, costs about VND300,000 (US$17.60). A large 70 by 100cm picture can be upwards of several million dong. According to Bat Trang Village artisans, the larger the picture, the greater the risk it will suffer from technical faults. Bat Trang Village’s largest-ever portrait on pottery features President Ho Chi Minh (1.4 by 1.15m) and was made by the Dat Tuyet shop. The shop owner plans to ask permission to display the piece in celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Ha Noi in 2010.

Bat Trang is a village in North Viet Nam about 13km south east of inner Ha Noi, on the Red River. It has been famous for its ceramics for a thousand years, particularly dinnerware and ornamental ware. The Bat Trang producers export ceramic goods annually to the value of over US$40 million.

Bat Trang traditional pottery includes items like bowls, dishes, vases and various pots and jars coloured with distinctive colours like ancient pearl glaze, crackle glaze and indigo-blue flower glaze.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News