Porcelain Porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating materials, generally including kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between . The toughness, strength, and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainly from vitrification and the formation of the mineral mullite within the body at these high temperatures. Though definitions vary, porcelain can be divided into three main categories: hard-paste, soft-paste and bone china. The category that an object belongs to depends on the composition of the paste used to make the body of the porcelain object and the firing conditions. Porcelain slowly evolved in China
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