Porcelain single operation. In this process, "green" (unfired) ceramic wares are heated to high temperatures in a kiln to permanently set their shapes. Porcelain is fired at a higher temperature than earthenware so that the body can vitrify and become non-porous. Porcelain originated in China, and it took a long time to reach the modern material. Until recent times, almost all East Asian porcelain was of the hard-paste type. There is no precise date to separate the production of proto-porcelain from that of porcelain. Although proto-porcelain wares exist dating from the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC), by the time of the Eastern
Chinese porcelain in European painting Europe, through what is known as "Carrak" trade, hence the name Kraak porcelain. French painters, such as François Desportes and Paul Gauguin, also represented Chinese bowls in their still-life paintings. Some like Jacques Linard in 1627 even painstainkingly reproduced Chinese writing, in "", 1627. This artistic trend coinciding with the fashion for Chinese porcelain in Europe in the 17th–18th century, which led to the development of a local porcelain industry initially highly imitative of Chinese wares, as seen in French porcelain. Chinese porcelain in European painting Chinese porcelain in European painting is known from the 16th century, following the importation