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Plate 8.5 Anonymous, The
Visit, c. 1630–5, Dutch school,
Enkhuizen. Oil on wood, height
85.7cm, width 117.6cm.
Museum of Art and History,
Geneva, Dépôt de la Fondation
Lucien Baszanger, Genève,
1967 (inv. no. BASZ 0005)

Vietnamese ceramics are putty coloured and no example of (Book of Kings), the Iranian national epic poem that
this form has been excavated to date. 11 combines legend and historical fact to tell the stories of
By the end of the Ming, Chinese porcelain was flooding Persian history from the earliest times to the Arab invasions
into Europe, first Portugal and Spain, and later into Holland of 651. The Shahnama is not only great literature, but
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and England. It became commonplace in middle-class demonstrates the importance of political legitimacy and
homes, as we see in this anonymous Dutch School oil correct political behaviour. Illustrated manuscripts of the
painting, The Visit, of 1630–5 (Pl. 8.5). Here a family is Shahnama exist in every style of Persian painting from 1330
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depicted in an interior with black and white chequered tiles, onwards.
wood panelling, tapestries and a frieze of blue-and-white
kraak porcelain on a shelf at the top of the wall.The
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enormous amount of porcelain vessels recovered from the
Dutch East India Company testifies to the scale of the later
Ming trade. Chinese porcelain is never portrayed as a
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present for Christ in European paintings of the later Ming
period, from the 1550s to 1640s. By this time it was not a
magical treasure but a high-quality luxury good. It was no
longer exclusively owned by aristocrats who received gifts
from African and Middle Eastern courts, but was also in the
possession of members of the middle classes who acquired it
at auction from sales of vast cargoes shipped directly from
China. Some porcelains of the late Ming that were made
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exclusively for European customers with coats of arms or in
European shapes appear in lavish still-life oil paintings (Pl.
8.6), such as a famous Pronkstilleven (‘ornate still life’) of 1638
by Willem Claesz Heda (1594–1680). Here, Chinese
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porcelain is simply a luxury vessel in which to serve small
fish alongside other Ming porcelain vessels used to serve
wine. Its status has dramatically declined.
Beyond Europe, in the Middle East the status of Chinese
porcelain was similarly high in the early Ming. It was
considered to be a suitable gift for kings, as we can see in this
courtly scene in a garden, made in about 1444 (Pl. 8.7). This
album painting shows three kneeling Ming courtiers at the
Timurid court and four Persian men carrying tables laden Plate 8.6 Willem Claesz Heda (1594–1680), Breakfast Still Life,
with early Ming porcelains, which perhaps had been dated 1638. Oil on canvas, height 118.4cm, width 97.5cm.
presented as courtly gifts. The scene is from the Shahnama Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Inv.: 5504

Early Ming Ceramics: Rethinking the Status of Blue-and-White | 79