Page 58 - For the Love of Porcelain

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Detail of ig. 5

resembles a Japanese lacquer chest with a Jacob van Campen (1596–1657) played a
domed lid. Silk, porcelain and lacquerware crucial role in the building and decoration of
as treasures from the Far East dominate the Amsterdam Town Hall, and at the same time
foreground of the painting. The rest of the he was busy with a similar project in The
merchandise is harder to identify. The man Hague: his design and decoration of Huis
on the far right carries a bundle of tobacco ten Bosch for Amalia van Solms (1602–
over his shoulder – a reference to America. 6 75), widow of Stadtholder Frederik Hendrik
(1584–1647). It is worthwhile examining
The two traditions of imagery – trade and the role of porcelain in this princely project.
continents – are quite loosely intertwined
in Lairesse’s painting. If we identify the As shown by Elmer Kolfin the octagonal
man in a turban with a camel as Asia and central hall of Huis ten Bosch contains
the man with the feathered headdress on paintings that together form an allegorical
5 the far right as America, then the man with scheme. 7 It is a grand tribute to the late
Engraved title page the pearl necklace can be none other than Stadtholder, conceived to a large extent
of T. van Domselaer, Africa (a white North African), and the by Jacob van Campen and Amalia. The
Beschryvinge van ladies in the foreground lifting the porcelain paintings are placed above each other in
Amsterdam (…), and the shell, Europe. Trade is emphasised two registers, the upper paintings depicting
Amsterdam, 1665, even more by the view of the harbour and important events in the life of Frederik
Rijksmuseum, by the woman to the right of Amsterdam Hendrik, the emphasis being on his role as
Amsterdam, with a ship’s crown and compass around conqueror and specifically as a bringer of
inv. no. 329 D 6 her neck: the personification of sea travel. peace. Below, a triumphal procession covers
Arranging the image elements as attractively the walls, bearing treasures and spoils of
we can assume represents porcelain (fig. 6). porcelain is given the place of honour we as possible appears to have been paramount war. In the procession, one painting depicts
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Here, the situation is finally as one would would expect. In the foreground are rolls for Lairesse, which is why Europe ended the riches from the East and the West.
expect: porcelain as the perfect product to of shining silk, small porcelain bowls, a up with the porcelain. Lairesse chose his The painting has in its very centre a large
portray an entire continent. However, it is soapstone statuette and a rare, red stoneware beautiful, centrally placed piece of porcelain blue-and-white porcelain vase that was
not an immediate eye-catching element jar. But it is the large plate that commands not to portray a continent, but to emphasise immediately recognisable at the time as old
in the representation and in that respect is all the attention. It is recognisable as Kraak the importance and the quality of the and therefore very rare. For seventeenth-
disappointing. porcelain with the panels around the rim. merchandise from Asia. century visitors to Huis ten Bosch, this
Large Kraak dishes are always highly valued old vase, dating to the reign of the Jiajing
This is not the case with a depiction of the in inventory descriptions, even in the late Porcelain and Amalia van Solms emperor (1522–66), referred to the previous
city virgin of about ten years later (fig. 9). seventeenth century; in other words, Lairesse Around the same time, but in an entirely century, when the Portuguese had exclusive
Gerard de Lairesse (1641–1711) painted chose to portray a costly and desirable piece. different entourage, a porcelain vase featured access to Asian treasures that were crucial for
Amsterdam and apparently felt much freer in Between the porcelain-carrying nymphs prominently in a painting by the architect royal prestige, previously for the Portuguese
the rendering of his subject. In this painting, and the city virgin is an object that most and painter Jacob van Campen (fig. 10). and now for the Dutch Orange family.
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54 I vormen uit vuur vormen uit vuur I 55