Page 30 - Zhangzhou Or Swatow The Collection of Zhangzhou Ware at the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands

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The so-called “Split Pagoda” Motif

GRV 1929-64

One of the most intriguing design on Zhangzhou ware is commonly referred to as “split pagoda”. It occurs only
on enamels.
The design is composed of a centre, enclosed and edged with bands, and a border of separate motifs.

The colour scheme is characteristic for late polychrome wares with a vivid turquoise combined with black
outlines. Four border elements parallel this scheme. The others are executed in red.

The design is only known from large dishes close to 40 cm in diameter,

and it seems to have been made exclusively for export. No examples of this design are reported from
collections in China. In contrast in Japan and maritime Southeast Asia “Split Pagoda” dishes are well known.

Four medallions are painted on the border in turquoise with black outlines. Short thorns or flames radiate
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outward across the outlines. Similar medallions were used in Jingdezhen during the 16 century for dishes
made for Portuguese Christian clients. Here they are in underglaze blue, circular to heart shaped, thorned, and
variously filled with the initials of the Jesuits : I.H.S. and the Royal Portuguese arms.

For an example in the Princessehof collection see Stroeber 2013, no. 78.
The exterior of these dishes of the Zhangzhou type is always plain, the base unglazed. Around the foot there
are commonly white splashes of glaze and kiln grit.

“Split pagoda” refers to the centre design. It is painted with abbreviated landscape elements, indicating a marine
environment, on three horizontals. The top has a row of peaks, the middle the architectural outlines of a tree-
tiered pagoda split vertically into two halves by a narrow channel free of decoration. The channel expands into
an oval cell at the bottom, containing miniature gates and pagodas.

The combination and non realistic proportions of the pictorial elements look strange: in late Ming, however,
creative Chinese used the element water, river or waterfall, as separating elements in a landscape, often
abbreviated and in a semi abstract way.

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