Page 28 - Chinese Export Porcelain Art, MET MUSEUM 2003

a fine iron-red line. Drawing in thin red line and 28. Partial Tea Service. Chinese (Dutch market), ca. I740. Hard paste.
wash can be seen in export porcelains of H. of milk jug with cover (.3) 5/4 in. (I3.3 cm). Helena Woolworth McCann
Collection, Purchase, Winfield Foundation Gift, I96I (61.64.I-.8)
the early 1700s painted with both Chinese and
Western subjects. If Jesuit influence is to be
There is a distinct stylistic connection between the decoration the 'Arbor"plate
of
invoked in this context, it should perhaps be in
(fig. 27) and this design, which has been uncertainly attributed to Cornelis Pronk.
light of the role of Father Matteo Ripa (1682-1746), Pronk was a skillful topographical artist andportraitist; his known workfor the
who at the request of the Kangxi emperor intro- VOC is uncharacteristic his manner, and this abstractpattern even more so.
of
to
of
duced the technique of copper engraving to the No mention it has beenfound in VOC references Pronk, but he is known to
have made detail drawings, some which could haveprovided the motifsfor the
of
imperial court, producing in 1713 the first Chinese
design. If
by
palmette, diaper, and lappets, all shared the 'Arbor" Pronk's drawings
engravings of the emperor's palace at Jehol.
(sent in duplicate) were in circulation in Jingdezhen, itpossible they were used
is
Penciled-or grisaille-decoration with both a Dutch merchant on his own account, who revised Pronk's motifs to create a
by
Chinese and European subjects began to appear new pattern?
regularly, with differing border patterns, toward
1730. Stylistically, those in a freely derived Du Although these eightpieces were acquired as an ensemble, diferences in the quality
Paquier manner are later, associated with armori- of the material and the painting indicate that they derivefrom more than one set.
The same pattern exists in a red and black palette, the plates having a variant
als datable to the 1740s and centering around
design of reversedpalmettes.
examples dated between 1750 and 1756. Labor
intensive and, at its highest level of skill, of

27