Page 136 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

The aforementioned finds demonstrate that the Portuguese were importing porcelain
Wreck. A 16th Century Portuguese Porcelain Wreck
off the Island of Mozambique, Christie’s Amsterdam, with panelled rim borders much earlier than Kraak porcelain was first manufactured.
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19 May 2004.
40 Almost seven years after the finding of the shipwreck, There is also a fragment of a blue-and-white dish with shallow rounded sides decorated
archival research brought to light important with a border of pending foliate scrolls and a medallion enclosing a flying horse on
information that identified the shipwreck as the
Espadarte, which sank in May 1558. the reverse, excavated at the female Convent of das Bernardas in Tavira, which relates
41 Most pieces are of open forms: dishes, saucer dishes,
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plates, bowls of medium and small size, and cups. closely to some of the Espadarte dishes.
42 Unlike the São João and São Bento, the Espadarte The sudden influx of porcelain to Lisbon brought about important changes in
did not yield any blue-and-white pieces depicting
phoenixes. the tastes and customs of the royal court, first that of Manuel I, and then of John
43 The author had the opportunity to study the porcelain
recovered from the shipwreck during a research trip III and Catherine of Austria. By the mid-sixteenth century porcelain was an integral
to Mozambique Island in August 2013. A publication part of the royalty’s courtly life and it had become customary to use it as tableware.
on the archaeological excavation and porcelain of the
Espadarte is forthcoming. In 1565, for instance, Catherine showed her ceremonial splendour using porcelain
44 The find of a dish bearing a cyclical mark on the
reverse which reads ‘made in the gui chou year’, when she entertained guests at her quarters. An account by the Bolognese captain
corresponding to 1553, shows that some porcelain Francesco de Marchi (1504–1576), mentions that countless pieces of porcelain were
could have been made 5 years prior to having been
acquired by the Portuguese. This is not surprising, used for serving food and were displayed on buffets and two credenzas in the palace
considering the transportation from Jingdezhen
to Macao and the storage of the porcelain before halls during a banquet to celebrate the marriage, by proxy, of the grandson of Charles
the ship could begin its return voyage. For more V, Alexander Farnese (1545–1592) and Maria of Portugal (1536–1577), daughter of
information and images of the marks, see Bound,
2004, pp. 11 and 22. Infante Duarte (1515–1540) and Isabel of Braganza (1514–1576).
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45 Jiajing porcelain has been also found at Portuguese
fortresses situated along the cost of Africa. For Porcelain, however, did not remain soley a royal privilege for long. Portuguese
instance, their fortress in Alcácer Ceguer, located textual sources reveal that the high-ranking nobility also enjoyed the novelty of owning
on the Morrocan coast of the Straight of Gibraltar
(between present-day Tangier and Ceuta), occupied and eating from porcelain on formal occasions. For instance, at the ducal palace of
from 1458 to 1550, yielded shards of about 18 blue-
and-white porcelains and one shard with red enamel. the House of Braganza, Vila Viçosa in central Portugal, a considerably large quantity
They were excavated from archaeological deposits of porcelain was initially displayed, alongside glass items, in an interior space that
corresponding to the final period of occupation,
which saw an increase in the Portuguese community may have been specially designed for this purpose, and then later used as tableware. 50
and in their domestic social life. This porcelain, that
must have been expensive and difficult to obtain A 1563 inventory drawn up after the death of Teodósio I, 5th Duke of Braganza
at the time, attests to the wealth and high social (1507?–1563), the most important nobleman after the King, lists more than 100
position of some inhabitants of the colony, their close
trade contacts with Asia and their social activities, pieces of porcelain among the contents of the dowager Duchess’s ‘House of glass and
which included gathering and entertainment
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involving the use or display of imported wares, porcelain’. That same year, while dining with Pope Pius IV (1559–1565) during a
resembling the city life of their mother country. The session of the Council of Trent, the Dominican friar Bartolomeu dos Mártires stated
settlement was abandoned by royal order and never
again reoccupied. Two shards, from a total of 20, are that in Portugal porcelain tableware was replacing silver. He observed: ‘We have … in
published in Charles L. Redman and James L. Boone,
‘Qsar es-Seghir (Alcácer Ceguer): a 15th and 16th Portugal a type of tableware, which, being clay, has such an advantage over silver both
century Portuguese colony in North Africa’, STVDIA, in refinement and cleanliness, that I would counsel all princes … not to use another
no. 41–42, January/December 1979, Lisbon, pp. 32–33
and 41, fig. 21, F and G. service and to banish silver from their tables. We call them porcelains in Portugal; they
46 The material recovered from more than two hundred
archaeological structures, the vast majority cesspits come from India and are made in China. The clay is so fine and transparent that the
containing materials dating from the fifteenth to white ones surpass crystal and alabaster, and those of the blue variety delight the eyes,
seventeenth centuries, includes a large number of
blue-and-white bowls and plates dating to the Jiajing representing a composition of alabaster and sapphires. Its fragility is compensated by
and Wanli periods. The Wanli reign finds will be
discussed in the following pages of this Chapter. I am its cheapness. They can be appreciated by the greatest princes for delight and curiosity,
grateful to Miguel Serra, Palimpsesto, for providing and are considered as such in Portugal’. Two years later, in 1565, porcelain was used
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me with images of the porcelain recovered from this
site. Mentioned in Canepa, 2014/1, p. 251, note 34. at a banquet hosted in Lisbon by Constantino of Braganza (1528–1575), Viceroy of
47 Kraak porcelain will be discussed in the following
Left Right pages of this Chapter. India 1558–1561, in honour of his newlywed niece Maria of Portugal. The porcelain,
Fig. 3.1.1.6 Blue-and-white dish from Fig. 3.1.1.9 Blue-and-white saucer dish 48 The female monastery began construction in 1509 by displayed on one of two credenzas, was described as: ‘…very precious porcelain vessels,
the shipwreck Espadarte (1558) from the shipwreck Espadarte (1558) order of Manuel I. In 1530, the building was transferred
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province to D. Fernando Coutinho, who completed the works more highly esteemed than silver and gold themselves and certainly some of those
Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566) Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566) and gave it to the nuns of the Order of Cister. It vessels were much admired for their size and beauty’. In 1603, a set of porcelain
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remained the only convent of that Order in the region,
Diameter: 21.3cm Fig. 3.1.1.8 Blue-and white bowls with Diameter: 14.7cm with nuns and converts not only coming from families
© Arqueonautas Foundation, Amsterdam traces of overglaze enamels on the © Arqueonautas Foundation, Amsterdam from Tavira but also from the rest of the Algarve. tableware (one of a total of three) was used at Vila Viçosa during the feast to celebrate
(IDM-002-02-1535) exterior and white-glazed bowls from (inv. no. IDM-002-01-38) Information from Patrimonio Cultural. Direção- the marriage of Manuel I’s great-grandson, Teodósio II, 7th Duke of Braganza and 2nd
the shipwreck Espadarte (1558) Geral do Património Cultural. www.patrimonio
Fig. 3.1.1.7 Blue-and-white porcelain Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province Fig. 3.1.1.10 Shard of a blue-and-white cultural.pt. Accessed August 2014. The shard is Duke of Barcelos (1568–1630) and Ana of Velasco (1585–1607), daughter of the 5th
from the shipwreck Espadarte (1558) Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566) saucer dish excavated at Lagos, Algarve published in Jorge Queiroz and Rita Manteigas (eds.), Duke of Frias and 7th Constable of Castile.
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Tavira, Patrimónios do Mar, exhibition catalogue,
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province Diameter: 21.2cm and 18.1cm (blue-and-white bowls); Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province Museu Municipal de Tavira, 2008, p. 225, no. 38. Catherine of Austria’s brother-in-law, Cardinal Henry continued the Lisbon royal
Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566) 7.3cm to 8.1cm (white-glazed bowls) Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566) There is also a rim shard that may have formed part of
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© Arqueonautas Foundation, Amsterdam © Arqueonautas Foundation, Amsterdam © Miguel Serra, Palimpsesto the same dish, published in p. 227, no. 40 (top right) of court tradition of giving porcelain as a diplomatic gift. When his nephew, the young

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