Page 137 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

Figs. 3.1.1.11a and b Shard of a Kinrande bowl caracterização do Porcelana Orientais, unpublished
excavated at the former convent of Santa
Clara-a-Velha, Coimbra
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign mark and
of the period (1522–1566)
© Santa Clara-a-Velha Convent, Coimbra
Fig. 3.1.1.12 Shard of Kinrande porcelain
excavated at the former convent of Santa
Clara-a-Velha, Coimbra
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566)
© Santa Clara-a-Velha Convent, Coimbra
Sebastian I disappeared during the Alcácer Quibir battle in 1578, he sent two boxes
the same catalogue. Jiajing reign porcelain at this site
containing 270 pieces of porcelains of various types and many other exotic objects to also includes a shard decorated with boys playing,
the Sheriff of Morocco as a ransom for the King. It seems that most of the porcelain was derived from paintings of ‘One Hundred Children’,
an auspicious motif encouraging the birth of many
decorated in polychrome enamels and gold, perhaps of the style known by the Japanese healthy children. Ibid., p. 231, no. 46.
49 Narratione particolare del Capitan Francesco
name, Kinrande (gold brocade), which was first made in Jingdezhen during the Jiajing de’ Marchi da Bologna, delle gran feste, e trionfi
reign. The Kinrande porcelain excavated from the main foundations (submerged for fatti in Portogallo, et in Fiandra nello sposalitio
56
dell’illustrissimo & Eccellentissimo Signore, il Sig.
several centuries) of the former convent of Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra, situated Alessandro Farnese, Prencipe di Parma, e Piacenza, e
la Serenissima Donna Maria di Portogallo, Bologna,
195km north of Lisbon in central Portugal, may have come from the collection of 1566. Cited in Jordan Gschwend, 1996, p. 114; and
Canepa, 2014/1, p. 21.
either Catherine or Cardinal Henry. Two Kinrande bowls, one bearing a Jiajing reign 50 This ‘House of glass and porcelain’ may have been a
57
mark, and a tiny Kinrande shard that may have formed part of an ewer decorated forerunner of the porcelain rooms that appeared in
the early decades of the seventeenth century in the
in iron-red and gold (Figs. 3.1.1.11a and b, and 3.1.1.12), are among more than Dutch Republic, which will be discussed in section
58
3.2.1 of this Chapter.
360 porcelains partially reconstructed from approximately 7,000 shards dating from 51 This unpublished inventory is part of a research
the Zhengde to Wanli reigns excavated from the site of this female convent of the project ‘All his worldly possessions. The estate of
the 5th Duke of Bragança, D. Teodósio I (PTDC/EAT-
Mendicant Order of Poor Clares, whose first vow was of poverty. The find of a yellow- HAT/098461/2008)’. I am grateful to Dr. Nuno Senos,
glazed bowl bearing the imperial Jiajing reign mark, perhaps of the same type as that Centro de História de Além-Mar (CHAM), for this
information. Mentioned in Canepa, 2014/1, p. 21.
listed in Catherine’s inventory in 1557, supports the theory of a royal donation. 59 52 F. Luís de Sousa, A vida de D. Frei Bartolomeu dos
Mártires, Lisbon, 1984, pp. 256–257. Cited in Pinto de
After the unification of Spain and Portugal in 1580, Philip II moved to Lisbon for two Matos, 2011, p. 128; and Canepa, 2014/1, p. 23.
years, and then returned to Madrid. An account describing the visit of the Venetian 53 G. Bertini, Le Nozze di Alessandro Farnese. Feste alle
corti di Lisbonna e Bruxelles, Milan, 1997, p. 86. Cited
ambassadors Tron and Lippomani to Lisbon in 1582 to congratulate Philip II on his in Pinto de Matos, 2011, p. 128; and Canepa, 2014/1,
p. 23.
ascension to the Portuguese throne, recorded that there were, on the Rua Nova dos 54 Mentioned in Pinto de Matos, 2011, p. 128; and
Canepa, 2014/1, p. 23.
Mercadores, four or six shops that sold ‘very fine porcelains of various shapes’. The 55 As mentioned in Chapter II, Cardinal Henry also gave
60
number of Lisbon shops selling porcelain seems low if one considers the over 1,000 silk as diplomatic gifts.
56 A. Caetano de Sousa, Provas da História Genealógica
pieces of porcelain recovered from the shipwreck Espadarte (1558) and the significant da Casa Real Portuguesa, Lisbon, 1948, vol. III, pp.
quantities of porcelain that were both displayed and used as tableware by the royalty 525–526; Jordan Gschwend, 1998, p. 214; Pinto de
Matos, 2011, p. 129; and Canepa, 2014/1, pp. 20–21.
and high-ranking nobility as early as the 1560s, discussed above. Recent research, 57 Published in Paulo César Santos, ‘As porcelanas da
61
China no velho mosteiro de Santa Clara-a-Velha de
however, has shown that the Rua Nova dos Mercadores was the principal commercial Coimbra’, Oriente, no. 3, August 2002, pp. 56–57; and
street in Renaissance Lisbon, where shops selling not only porcelain, but also Asian Paulo César Santos, ‘The Chinese Porcelain of Santa
Clara-a-Velha, Coimbra: Fragments of a Collection’,
textiles and clothes, and many other imported rarities were competing for space and Oriental Art, vol. XLIX, no. 3 (2003/2004), pp. 24–31,
fig. 15. The convent of Santa Clara-a-Velha was built
store fronts. It also has suggested the possibility that the merchants, captains and with the patronage of Queen Isabella of Aragon
sailors who arrived from Asia immediately sold their miudezas, including porcelain (1271–1336), wife of King Dinis (r. 1279–1325). The
convent, situated on the left bank of the Mondego
and lacquer, at the Lisbon’s docks. By this time the trade in a new style of Jingdezhen River, was repeatedly flooded. Manuel I gained papal
62
permission to relocate the convent in 1505, but the
blue-and-white porcelain, known as Kraak, was already substantial. This porcelain, community of the Poor Clares only moved to the new
63
convent of Santa Clara-a-Nova in 1677.
probably first made at the end of the Longqing reign (1567–1572), was produced 58 One of the partially reconstructed Kinrande bowls,
64
in large quantities at several private kilns in Jingdezhen almost exclusively for export decorated with underglaze cobalt blue on the interior
65
and red enamel and gold on the exterior, is published
not only to Europe and the New World, but also to Japan, Turkey, Persia and Southeast in Jorge M. dos Santos Alves (ed.), Macau – O Primeiro
Asia (Appendix 2). It seems likely that the development of this new style of export Século de um Porto Internacional. The First Century
66
of An International Port, exhibition catalogue, Centro
porcelain was prompted by the lift of the Ming martime trade by Emperor Longqing, Científico e Cultural de Macau, I.P., 2007, p. 24, cat.
no. 7. The yellow shard is published and discussed
when he ascended to the throne in 1567. Thinly-potted and densely decorated in a in Mathilda Amélia Gonçalves Larsson, Estudo e
136 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer
MA dissertation, Facultade de Ciências e Tecnologia, free and spontaneous style with traditional Chinese auspicious animals and Daoist,
Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2008, p. 35, fig. SCVP8 Buddhist and Confucian motifs, or narrative scenes taken from novels or other literary
and p. 36; and Mathilda Larsson and João Pedro
Veiga, ‘Ming Porcelain from the Santa Clara-a-Velha works, Kraak porcelain was much sought after by the Portuguese for at least 50 years,
Monastery in Coimbra, Portugal. First Results Using from the early 1590s until the mid-1640s, when important political changes had
Portable μ-EDXRF Spectrometer’, Geoarchaeology
and Archaeomeneralogy. Proceedings of the occurred in both Portugal and China.
67
International Conference, 29–30 October 2008,
p. 134. I am grateful to Mathilda Larsson and Lígia Inês At this point it is important to remember that porcelain, unlike silk, was not
Gambini, coordinator Santa Clara-a-Velha convent, subject to the royal monopoly. Although merchants and private individuals could
for providing me with information and images of the
porcelain shards excavated at the convent.
59 The partially reconstructed bowl is published in import porcelain, furniture, cloth and other products into Lisbon without registering
Santos, 2002, p. 58; and Santos Alves, 2007, p. 24, cat. them, they required royal permission to trade them overseas. The livro de rezão
no. 6.
60 Alexandre Herculano, ‘Viagem a Edifício Portugal (merchant account book) of a Portuguese ship-owner, merchant and agent named
dos Cavaleiros Tron e Lipomani’, Opúsculos, vol. VI, Francisco da Gama, who traded actively between India and Malacca, covering his
Lisbon, 1886, p. 120. Cited in Pinto de Matos, 2011,
p. 128. activities from 1619 to 1621, provides important information regarding the trade
61 The next known textual reference to porcelain being activities carried out by private merchants in the early decades of the seventeenth
sold in Lisbon dating to almost 40 years later, in
1620, will be discussed in the following pages of this century. Francisco da Gama, who is known to have purchased porcelain at Malacca,
Chapter. Cited in Pinto de Matos, 2011, p. 128; and
Canepa, 2014/1, p. 23. was captured by a servant of the VOC at the end of 1621 or shortly after, who sent
62 I am greatly indebted to Annemarie Jordan Gschwend da Gamma’s account book to his brother in the Dutch Republic in 1626. We learn
for this information, which will be published in the
forthcoming book Annemarie Jordan Gschwend and from this account book, now housed in the library of Leiden University, that several
K.J.P. Lowe (eds.), The Global City: On the Streets of
Renaissance Lisbon, London, November 2015. private merchants participated in the trade by sending a wide variety of exotic goods
63 Only a few Kraak pieces with overglaze enamel on the cargo of various ships. These individual shipments were most of the time
68
decoration have been recorded so far. These include
a large dish decorated solely in overglaze enamels in of very small quantities, consisting of one or a few boxes. In November 1626, for
the Princessehof Museum in Leeuwarden and another
of slightly smaller size in the Metropolitan Museum in instance, several silks were brought on account of Antonio Dias do Amaral, ‘one loza
New York. There are also a blue-and-white dish and fina’ on account of Fernao do Cron, and there were loaded also ‘9 large boxes of louza
two bowls with additional decoration in overglaze
enamels in the Topkapi Saray in Istanbul. For further (probably porcelain) and ‘a barsinha de loza that was of Memdes’. There were also ‘a
information, see Maura Rinaldi, Kraak Porcelain. A
Moment in the History of Trade, London, 1989, pp. tiger skin for Don Felipe de Sousa and a porcelain boiao [pot]’, and ‘another green
192–194, pls. 254 and 555; Teresa Canepa, ‘Kraak boiao for Antonio Laragarto’, which may also have been porcelain. Perhaps the latter
porcelain: The rise of global trade in the late 16th
and early 17th centuries’, in Luísa Vinhais and Jorge could have been Longquan porcelain.
69
Welsh (eds.), Kraak Porcelain: The Rise of Global Trade
in the Late 16th and Early 17th Centuries, exhibition As mentioned earlier, the Portuguese merchants from Macao, Bantam, Malacca
catalogue, London-Lisbon, 2008, pp. 42–43, fig. 22; and various other ports in the Indian Ocean were involved in the trade of considerable
and Eva Ströber, Ming Porcelain for a Globalised
Trade, Stuttgart, 2013, pp. 206–207, no. 86. quantities of porcelain and zinc, using them as ballast cargoes, to supply the demand
64 A Kraak dish unearthed in China from a tomb dated
to 1573, the earliest piece recorded to date, suggests in both India and Portugal. In the small number of surviving bills of lading and cargo
70
such a date. The excavated dish is discussed, but not manifests of the Portuguese ships that made the inbound voyage from India, porcelain
illustrated in Yao Chengqing and Yao Lianhong, ‘New
Discoveries of Porcelain Trays for Export Produced together with other small items such as furniture, boxes, fans and jewellery, were listed
in Years of Wan Li of the Ming dynasty’, Science and
Technology of Ancient Ceramics 3, Proceedings of under the designation miudezas. According to Boyajian, the heterogenous category
71
the International Symposium (ISAC), 1995, p. 411. of miudezas rarely accounted to more than 100 or 200 quintals per carrack. Boyajian
72
Mentioned in Maura Rinaldi, ‘Dating Kraak porcelain’
in Kraak begeerlijk porselein uit China, Vormen uit notes that porcelain was perhaps sold for 500 cruzados the quintal in Lisbon, and that
Vuur, no. 180/181, 2003/1–2, p. 32; Canepa, 2008/2,
p. 23; Teresa Canepa, ‘The Portuguese and Spanish the annual shipments were worth less than 10,000 cruzados. It is important to note
73
Trade in Kraak Porcelain in the Late 16th and Early that a preparatory committee was created in 1624, during the reign of Philip IV, for
17th Centuries’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic
Society, Vol. 73, 2008–2009, p. 61; and Teresa the formation of a trading company for India, the Junta Preparatória da Comphania de
Canepa, ‘The Portuguese and Spanish Trade in Kraak
Porcelain in the Late 16th and Early 17th Centuries’, in Comércio. The fidalgo Dom Jorge Mascarenhas, Marquis of Montalvão (1579?–1652),
Cheng, 2012, p. 259.
65 Ten private kilns where Kraak porcelain was fired who had been president of the Senate of Lisbon and president of the preparatory
have been discovered so far. These kilns, located in committee, was appointed President of the newly formed Comphania de Comércio
the Old City Zone of Jingdezhen, are: Guanyinge,
Lianhualing, Dongfeng ci chang, Dian ci chang, da Índia (hereafter India Company), which received its charter on 17 August 1628.
Liujiaxianong, Shibaqiao, Renmin ci chang, The Crown was the major shareholder of the India Company, which was to take over
Cidubaihuo, Guihuanong and Xinhua ci chang. Cao
Jianwen and Luo Yifei, ‘Kraak Porcelain Discovered at responsibility for organizing and dispatching to India on behalf of the Crown the
Some Kiln Sites in Jingdezhen City in Recent Years’,
Oriental Art, vol. L, no. 4, 2006, pp. 16–24. merchant ships of the Carreira da Índia and the aid and arms being sent to the Estado
66 According to Wu, no particular term was used in da Índia. The India Company, however, collapsed in 1633.
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China to designate Kraak porcelain during the Ming
dynasty. Ruoming Wu, The Origins of Kraak Porcelain
in the Late Ming Dynasty, PhD Thesis, Institute of
East Asian Art History, Ruprecht-Karls University,
Trade in Chinese Porcelain 137