Page 123 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

The most important material evidence of the trade in silk to Western Europe and According to Carletti, the canopy of the curtains was embroidered with the coat of arms
the New World is provided by a small number of extant woven silk cloths and finished of Fernando de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. This is the earliest textual reference
silk products of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries housed in public of silk made to order bearing a European coat of arms. Silks bearing European coat of
and private collections in China and the rest of the world, which combine traditional arms continued to be made to order in the early seventeenth century. These include
Chinese weaving, embroidery or painting techniques and motifs, with European the velvet reposteros (decorative cloths patterned with a coat of arms) sent from Manila
motifs. This group of silks, not only fascinating for their rarity but also for the role to the priest of King Philip III in Madrid, Alonso Maldonado de Torres, in 1615; and
they played in the intercultural exchange between the East and West that occurred in the magnificent set of seven known hangings embroidered with silk and gilt-paper-
the early modern period, demonstrate that the trade in silk to Western Europe and the wrapped thread, and with details painted with pigments, bearing a coat of arms that
New World was not limited to raw silk, woven silk cloths and finished silk products may be an erroneous rendering of the arms of the Portuguese family Mascharenas.
made for both the Chinese domestic and export markets. These silks were made as Future research may provide further material and textual evidence of orders of silks
special orders for the Portuguese and Spanish markets for use in both religious and made specifically for European customers at the time.
secular contexts in their respective Iberian countries in Western Europe, the Spanish
colonies in the New World, as well as the Portuguese and Spanish colonies in Asia.
They give tangible testimony of the ability of the Chinese silk producers to adapt to
specific requirements of their new European clientele.
From the analysis of the stylistic characteristics of a selection of these silks it can
be concluded that the European influence on them was quite limited. Although the
Chinese silk producers were most likely provided with a European textile or printed
source as model for the woven or embroidered silk ordered, they always took the
liberty to create a hybrid design, incorporating European motifs with motifs that are
undoubtedly Chinese in style. They even rendered some of the European decorative
elements in a manner that recalls the depictions of certain floral or animal motifs
seen on embroidered or woven silks made for the domestic market. Although the
symmetrical arrangement of the design of some of these silks appears to derive from
European textiles, the design of others like those dominated by a central roundel, is
distinctly Chinese. Even the colour schemes used by the silk producers seem to have
been taken from silks made earlier for the domestic market. Although the exact place
of manufacture of these silks is still unknown, the fact that scholars have suggested
Beijing and Macao as possible places of origin for some of them, would indicate that
European influence not only affected the silk producers that could have worked closely
with Iberian customers, but also those that were in mainland China and thus were less
likely to have contact with any Europeans.
As shown the use of silks made to order for the Iberian market with a mix of
cultural references, both Asian and European, is attested by a few extant ecclesiastical
vestments and woven silks that appear to have formed part of other such vestments.
Although many questions still remain unanswered, one can confidently say that priests
of the Catholic Church living in the Iberian Peninsula, and/or in the Portuguese and
Spanish settlements in Asia, wore ecclesiastical vestments sawn up from Chinese silks
with exotic and colourful motifs, such as Buddhist lions, which did not conform at all
to Christian iconography. Such ecclesiastical vestments seem to be in sharp contrast to
the sumptuary laws passed in the Iberian Peninsula at the time.
Textual sources have shown, however, that special orders were also made for
private individuals from other European countries present in Asia as early as the late
sixteenth century. Perhaps the most important order we know of is that placed by the
Italian Francesco Carletti for the curtains and all the accessories and furnishings for
a room, which combined Chinese traditional weaving and embroidering techniques
and motifs, with European motifs and forms. These pieces of silk were most probably
woven in kesi tapestry with a design of various fantastic animals, birds and flowers.

122 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer Trade in Chinese Silk 123