Page 5 - Met Museum Export Porcelain 2003

THE EUROPEAN TRADE

t once exotic and mundane, ornamental

and utilitarian,Chinese porcelain began

to alter Western taste at the onset of

the seventeenth century. Untilthen its influ-

ence had been intermittentand circumstan-

tial, its occasional presence the result of a

raregift (fig. 2) or a princelycollection, like

that of the Medici grand dukes in the mid-

sixteenth century. Commercialtrade with the

West was made possible by the Portuguese

opening of the sea route around the Cape of

Good Hope in 1498, and the first porcelains

decorated specifically for the Western market

resulted from Portugal'sdirect contact with

Beijing between 1517 and 1521 (fig. 1). A fail-

ure of diplomacy caused a breach lasting . '*
until 1554, but a sizable and heterogeneous, . " ,
:i
group of porcelains datable to this early '

period bears witness to Portugal'ssuccess in .

establishing the mechanics of East-West , 0
. . ..
trade. Among these porcelains are ewers 'i
bearing the coats of arms of Portuguese

active in the East, large dishes with Christian

emblems, a bowl with Renaissance grotesque

Coveredcup,interior 2. CoveredCup.Chinesewith Englishmounts,ca.I565-70. Hardpasteand
silvergilt. H. 73/8in. (I8.7 cm). Gift of Irwin Untermyer, I968 (68.I4I.I25a, b)

Sixbowlsofthistypewererecordeadt SchlosAsmbrasin theAustrianTyroiln1596,
five markedwithasealtranslatedas'jinevesselfortherichandhonorableO."ur
cup,withitssobermountsbyan unidentfiedEnglishsilversmithc,orresponcdlsosely
to thedescriptionof onegiven to QueenElizabeth I in 1582.

Theoutsideofthebowlwasoriginallycoveredwithfinelydrawngolddecoration;
althoughnowalmostentirelylost,it isstilla dramaticontrasttotheblueandwhite
interiorT. hisstyleofpaintingingoldona coloregdroundwasproducedin the
mid-sixteentchenturpyrimarilyfortheJapanesemarketw, hereit wastermed
kinrande('goldbrocaded").

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