Page 132 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

(hereafter blue-and-white) with a combination of Chinese and European motifs made
at private kilns in Jingdezhen (Appendix 2), which will be discussed in section 3.4.1 19 Porcelain decorated with underglaze cobalt blue had
been made in vast quantities at Jingdezhen since
of this Chapter. 19 the late 1320s, during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368),
Porcelain is not mentioned in the inventory of John III, who did not enjoy an under the patronage of the imperial court. Harrison-
Hall, 1997, p. 194; and Nigel Wood and Mike Tite, ‘Blue
affluent financial situation as did his father, Manuel I. Many references, however, and White – The Early Years Tang China and Abbasid
20
Iraq Compared’, in Stacey Pierson (ed.), Transfer: the
can be found in the inventories of his wife, Catherine of Austria. The earliest is a influence of China on World Ceramics, Colloquies on
Art & Archaeology in Asia No. 24, London, 2007, p. 21.
document in the form of an illuminated parchment, drawn up in 1548 by Catherine’s 20 For this opinion, see Guimarães Sá, 2009, p. 599.
camareiro-mor (Chief Chamberlain) Francisco Velásquez, which lists 11 ‘porcelanas’ of 21 This document, Quitação que a Rainha D. Catarina
mandou passar a Francisco Velásquez (…) ano de
various materials (porcelain and semi-precious stones). In 1555, Catherine bought 1548, is an official receipt that registered all objects
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320 porcelains for her table for the large amount of 22,420 réis, thus paying 1,400 (precious gems, jewels and exotica) in Catherine’s
collection until that date. It is housed today in
réis for each corja (batches of 20 pieces). Two years later, in 1557, she displayed four the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon. Fig. 3.1.1.2 Blue-and-white bowl
22
Discussed and illustrated in Jordan Gschwend, 1996, with silver-gilt mounts
porcelain bowls (one yellow, another black and two others non-specified) and three pp. 100–101, fig. 13. Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
I
small dishes (two yellow and one black) in her wardrobe. The yellow bowls and dishes 22 ANTT, Corpo Cronológico, Part 1, Bundle 96, Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566)
23
Document 147. The original text in Portuguese reads:
may have been like those with monochrome yellow glaze made at the Ming imperial ‘vinte e dous mil e coatrozentos e vi ters. Em cõmpra Height: 6cm; diameter: 13.1cm
de dezasseis corjas de porzelanas de mil e coatroze © Museo Civico Medievale, Bologna, Italy
kilns in Jingdezhen during the reign of Emperor Jiajing (Appendix 2). According tos rs corja que somão vi te e dous mil e coatroze tos
24
to the Dominican friar, Gaspar da Cruz, who went to China in about 1556, a small e os vi te rs forão de as leuar Ao paço. Xxij iiij’ xx rs’.
Cited in Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, ‘O Fascínio
amount was secretly sold at a profit. In his Tractado em que se cõtam muito por esteco as de Cipango. Artes Decorativas e lacas da Ásia
Oriental em Portugal, Espanha e Áustria (1511–1598)’,
cousas da China, com suas particularidades e assi do reino de Ormuz [Treaty in which the in Soares da Cunha, 1998, p. 206; Pinto de Matos, gilt mount bearing a Latin inscription dated 1554, was given to Pompeo Zambeccari,
2002–2003, p. 39; and Krahe, 2014, Vol. I, p. 98.
things of China are extensively recounted, with their special features and also those of 23 ANTT, Casa Forte, Livro da Cartuxa d’Evora 8, papal nuncio to Portugal from 1550 to 1553, shortly before (or after) he returned
I
the kingdom of Hormuz] printed in Évora by André de Burgos in 1569–1570, Gaspar Prateleira VI, 69v. Mentioned in Jordan, 1994, p. 194; to Italy. From the documentation discussed thus far it is possible to conclude that
32
Jordan Gschwend, 1998, p. 205; and Pinto de Matos,
da Cruz stated ‘And howsoever the porcelain which is used in all the country of China, 2002-2003, p. 39. The Portuguese royal palaces 27 Guimarães Sá, 2009, p. 600. a relatively large quantity of porcelain was imported into Portugal during the first
and in all India, is of common clay, notwithstanding, there is some that is not lawful to had rooms designated for one or more wardrobes 28 Torre do Tombo, Lisbon, Bundle 106, Document no. decades of direct trade with China, which was mainly for the personal use of the King
(guardaroba or guarda reposte), personal libraries,
66, no. 14101. For a transciption of the original text
be sold commonly, for the magistrates only use it, because it is red and green, and gilt treasuries and collections of the female royals of this document, discovered by Jordan Gschwend and members of the royal court of Lisbon, or sent as gifts to their relatives residing at
(queens and princesses). The King also had one or in the archive of the Torre do Tombo in Lisbon, see
and yellow. Some of this is sold, but very little, and that very secretly’. Considering more royal wardrobe(s). Catherine of Austria had a Krahe, 2014, Vol. I, p. 99. other European courts, as well as to the clergy.
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Gaspar da Cruz’s comment and the archaeological find of a yellow-glazed bowl bearing wardrobe, probably composed of a series of rooms of 29 A fragrant gum resin obtained from the bark of The significant increase in porcelain production at Jingdezhen during the forty-
various sizes, where she must have partially displayed
several species of a tropical East Asian tree, in
a Jiajing reign mark in Portugal discussed in the following pages, one cannot rule her Kunstkammer collection (set out on shelves and particular Styrax benzoin, used for incense-making four year reign of the Jiajing emperor, not only for the imperial court and domestic
tables, or stored in chests and caskets). Annemarie and perfumery.
out the possibility that Portuguese merchants could have received pieces of yellow- Jordan Gschwend, ‘Catherine and Juana of Austria: 30 Pinto de Matos, 2002–2003, p. 39. Seven years later, in market but also for the export market, led to a far greater variety of new shapes,
glazed porcelain as gifts for the Queen or purchased them especially for her. The black- Defining feminine royal spaces and contexts of 1573, Joanna of Austria sent ‘three porcelains’ among decorative motifs and techniques, which reflected in a greater use of coloured
other exotic goods to her sister, Maria. Madrid
display in Portugal and Spain’, paper presented at the
glazed bowl and dish listed in Catherine’s wardrobe may refer to porcelain with a Palatium Workshop: Inventories and Courtly Spaces, Archivo de los Dukes de Alba, Caja 9, 101, Madrid 29 enamels. The majority of the porcelain imported into Portugal in the last decades of
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Sintra, 2012. Mentioned in Canepa, 2014/1, p. 250, January 1573. Pérez de Tudela and Jordan Gschwend,
monochrome black glaze made at private kilns of Zhangzhou in Fujian (Appendix 2). note 29. 2001, Appendix A, p. 36. the Jiajing reign, as will be shown in the following pages, continued to be blue-and-
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That same year of 1557, following the death of John III, Catherine became regent, 24 Yellow-glazed bowls, dishes, jars and other large 31 Sir H. Home, ‘A Ming Bowl at Bologna’, Transactions white. Material evidence of the variety and quality of the porcelain shipped to Lisbon
pieces were made at the Ming official kilns located
of the Oriental Ceramic Society, Vol. 13, 1935–1936,
as her grandson Sebastian (1554–1578) was still a minor. During her reign, which at Zhushan in the Old City Zone of Jingdezhen as pp. 30–31, pl. 5. in the early 1550s is provided by maritime archaeological finds from two Portuguese
early as the Hongwu reign (1368–1398). Porcelain 32 C. M. de Witte, La correspondence des premiers
lasted until 1562, Catherine was active in seeking out luxury goods and exotica. 27 with monochrome yellow-glaze continued to be Nonces Permanents au Portugal (1532–1553), Lisbon, shipwrecks that sank on their homeward journeys: the São João and São Bento. The
That same year, a number of porcelain containers arrived in Lisbon for Catherine, made during the subsequent reigns, until the 1986, vol. I, p. 343; S. Deswarte-Rosa, ‘Le Cardinal São João wrecked in 1552 and her sister ship, the São Bento, wrecked two years later,
Giovanni Ricci de Montepulciano’, La Villa Médicis,
Wanli reign. They were not only reserved for use
which were subsequently sent by the Queen to her apothecary Joana Gonçalvez on by the Ming imperial court but were also given as Études, 2, Rome, 1991, pp. 124–126; and Jordan in 1554, both off the east coast of South Africa (Appendix 3).
diplomatic gifts, as evidenced by the 16 pieces Gschwend, 1996, pp. 112–113. Porcelain was also
29 March 1563. Alfonso de Cuniga, the Queen’s treasurer, described the porcelains as assembled by Shah Abbas (1587–1629), who donated highly valued by other papal representatives from Although their actual wreck sites have not yet been found, the finds from the
‘Two ewers full of tamarinds / Two cases of octagonal porcelains with lids / A porcelain his collection in 1611 to the Shrine of his Safavid Rome. For instance, an inventory drawn up in 1561 São João and São Bento provide the earliest archaeological evidence of the Portuguese
of the belongings of Cardinal Giovanni Ricci de
ancestors in Ardebil, Iran (now in the Archaeological
chamber pot with its lid / Four porcelain jars / two larger jars / Sixty rose porcelains Museum in Teheran). See Geng Baochang, Ming Montepulciano (1495–1574), nuncio to Portugal from trade in porcelain recorded so far. The porcelain of the São João was undoubtedly
Qing ciqi jiangding (Connoisseurship of Ming and 1545 to 1550, lists 138 porcelains among a large
/ Forty serpent porcelains / Six pieces of porcelain / Forty coral porcelains / Ten more Qing Ceramics), Hong Kong and Beijing, 1993, collection of exotica purchased in Lisbon, which he acquired through clandestine trade, but that of the São Bento may have been acquired
porcelain pieces’. 28 p. 413, table V, p. 10. For examples dating to the housed in his palace in Rome situated in Via Giulia. immediately after commercial relations with China were re-established that year,
Mentioned in Ibid., p. 116; and Canepa, 2014/1, p. 20.
Hongzhi, Zhengde and Jiajing reigns, see Harrison-
Catherine continued Manuel I’s practice of giving porcelain as royal gifts, perhaps Hall, 2001, pp. 185–186, nos. 7:18–7:20; pp. 204–205, 33 Harrison-Hall, 2001, pp. 211 and 213–214. in 1554. A study of nearly 30,000 shards that have washed up onto beaches near
nos. 8:25–8:28; and p. 249, nos. 9:74 and 9:75–9:76; 34 The dating is confirmed by the finds of a shard
as a way of honouring the Avis dynasty she married into. She often gave porcelains to respectively. Mentioned in Canepa, 2014/1, p. 250, bearing a Jiajing reign mark during excavations at Port Edward, as well as onto beaches at Msikaba, where the São João and São Bento,
note 30.
her Habsburg relatives in Spain and Austria and sent many more as diplomatic gifts. In 25 The English translation of Gaspar da Cruz’s text is the Port Edward wreck site in 2002, and a fragment respectively are believed to have wrecked, has shown that their ceramic cargoes
of a bowl bearing a four-character Jiajing reign mark
c.1566, for instance, Catherine sent amber, benzoin, porcelain and other products to taken from Boxer, 2004, pp. 126–127. found off Msikaba in 2008. Published in Tim Maggs, consisted predominantly of blue-and-white porcelain made for export at private kilns
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26 A small quantity of black-glazed porcelain wares ‘The Great Galleon São João: remains from a mid-
her niece Joanna of Austria (1535–1573), the youngest daughter of Emperor Charles was excavated from the Dongkou kiln site in Pinghe sixteenth century wreck on the Natal South Coast’, in Jingdezhen during the Jiajing reign (Appendix 2). The porcelain ranged from high
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V (hereafter Charles V) and Isabella of Portugal (1503–1539). It is likely that the county. I am grateful to Professor Li Jian’an for Annals of the Natal Museum, vol. 26 (1), 1984, p. 178; to medium quality, all with purely Chinese forms and decorative motifs derived from
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and Valerie Esterhuizen, ‘Sao Bento – Jiajing (1522–
bringing this porcelain to my attention. Li Jian’an,
Jiajing blue-and-white bowl housed today in the Museo Civico in Bologna came from ‘A Study of Zhangzhou Ware’, Studies in memory 66)’, in Roxanna M. Brown (ed.), Southeast Asian nature with Daoist associations, such as mythical animals (dragons, qilins, Buddhist
of Chen Chang-wei, 4th Issue, Taipei, 2009, p. 30. Ceramics Museum Newsletter, vol. V, no. 3, May-June
the collection of either John III or Catherine (Fig. 3.1.1.2). This bowl, with a silver- Mentioned in Canepa, 2014/1, pp. 250–251, note 31. 2008, p. 2, respectively. Lions and phoenixes), birds and fish, as well as a variety of flowers, fruits and scroll
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130 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer Trade in Chinese Porcelain 131