Page 138 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa
P. 138

Figs. 3.1.1.11a and b  Shard of a Kinrande bowl   caracterização  do  Porcelana  Orientais,  unpublished
 excavated at the former convent of Santa   MA dissertation, Facultade de Ciências e Tecnologia,   free and spontaneous style with traditional Chinese auspicious animals and Daoist,
 Clara-a-Velha, Coimbra   Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2008, p. 35, fig. SCVP8   Buddhist and Confucian motifs, or narrative scenes taken from novels or other literary
 Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province  and p. 36; and Mathilda Larsson and João Pedro
 Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign mark and    Veiga, ‘Ming Porcelain from the Santa Clara-a-Velha   works, Kraak porcelain was much sought after by the Portuguese for at least 50 years,
 of the period (1522–1566)  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
 © Santa Clara-a-Velha Convent, Coimbra
                          and Archaeomeneralogy. Proceedings of the   occurred in both Portugal and China.
                                                                                            67
                          International  Conference,  29–30  October  2008,
 Fig. 3.1.1.12  Shard of Kinrande porcelain   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
 excavated at the former convent of Santa   Gambini,  coordinator  Santa  Clara-a-Velha  convent,   subject to the royal monopoly. Although merchants and private individuals could
 Clara-a-Velha, Coimbra   for providing me with information and images of the
                          porcelain shards excavated at the convent.
 Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province  59   The partially reconstructed bowl is published in   import porcelain, furniture, cloth and other products into Lisbon without registering
 Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566)   Santos, 2002, p. 58; and Santos Alves, 2007, p. 24, cat.   them, they required royal permission to trade them overseas.  The  livro de rezão
 © Santa Clara-a-Velha Convent, Coimbra  no. 6.
                        60   Alexandre Herculano, ‘Viagem a Edifício Portugal   (merchant account book) of a Portuguese ship-owner, merchant and agent named
 Sebastian I disappeared during the Alcácer Quibir battle in 1578, he sent two boxes   dos Cavaleiros Tron e Lipomani’, Opúsculos, vol. VI,   Francisco da Gama, who traded actively between India and Malacca, covering his
 the same catalogue. Jiajing reign porcelain at this site   Lisbon, 1886, p. 120. Cited in Pinto de Matos, 2011,
 containing 270 pieces of porcelains of various types and many other exotic objects to   also includes a shard decorated with boys playing,   p. 128.   activities from 1619 to 1621, provides important information regarding the trade
 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’,   61   The next known textual reference to porcelain being   activities carried out by private merchants in the early decades of the seventeenth
 an auspicious motif encouraging the birth of many
                         sold in Lisbon dating to almost 40 years later, in
 decorated in polychrome enamels and gold, perhaps of the style known by the Japanese   healthy children. Ibid., p. 231, no. 46.    1620, will be discussed in the following pages of this   century. Francisco da Gama, who is known to have purchased porcelain at Malacca,
 49   Narratione particolare del Capitan Francesco   Chapter. Cited in Pinto de Matos, 2011, p. 128; and
 name, Kinrande (gold brocade), which was first made in Jingdezhen during the Jiajing   de’ Marchi da Bologna, delle gran feste, e trionfi   Canepa, 2014/1, p. 23.    was captured by a servant of the VOC at the end of 1621 or shortly after, who sent
 reign.  The Kinrande porcelain excavated from the main foundations (submerged for   fatti in Portogallo, et in Fiandra nello sposalitio   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
 56
                          for  this information,  which  will  be published  in  the
 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   forthcoming book Annemarie Jordan Gschwend and   from this account book, now housed in the library of Leiden University, that several
 la Serenissima Donna Maria di Portogallo, Bologna,   K.J.P. Lowe (eds.), The Global City: On the Streets of
 195km north of Lisbon in central Portugal, may have come from the collection of   1566. Cited in Jordan Gschwend, 1996, p. 114; and   Renaissance Lisbon, London, November 2015.    private merchants participated in the trade by sending a wide variety of exotic goods
 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   63   Only a few  Kraak pieces with overglaze enamel   on the cargo of various ships.  These individual shipments were most of the time
 57
                                                                                      68
                          decoration have been recorded so far. These include
 mark, and a tiny Kinrande shard that may have formed part of an ewer decorated   forerunner of the porcelain rooms that appeared in   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 early decades of the seventeenth century in the   the Princessehof Museum in Leeuwarden and another
 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   of slightly smaller size in the Metropolitan Museum in   instance, several silks were brought on account of Antonio Dias do Amaral, ‘one loza
 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   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
 the Zhengde to Wanli reigns excavated from the site of this female convent of the   project ‘All his worldly possessions. The estate of   enamels in the Topkapi Saray in Istanbul. For further   (probably porcelain) and ‘a barsinha de loza that was of Memdes’. There were also ‘a
 the 5th Duke of Bragança, D. Teodósio I (PTDC/EAT-  information, see Maura Rinaldi,  Kraak Porcelain. A
 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,   Moment in the History of Trade, London, 1989, pp.   tiger skin for Don Felipe de Sousa and a porcelain boiao [pot]’, and ‘another green
 glazed bowl bearing the imperial Jiajing reign mark, perhaps of the same type as that   Centro de História de Além-Mar (CHAM), for this   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
 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   and early 17th centuries’, in Luísa Vinhais and Jorge   could have been Longquan porcelain.
                                                                                            69
 Mártires, Lisbon, 1984, pp. 256–257. Cited in Pinto de   Welsh (eds.), Kraak Porcelain: The Rise of Global Trade
 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.  in the Late 16th and Early 17th Centuries, exhibition   As mentioned earlier, the Portuguese merchants from Macao, Bantam, Malacca
 years, and then returned to Madrid. An account describing the visit of the Venetian   53   G. Bertini, Le Nozze di Alessandro Farnese. Feste alle   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
 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,   Trade, Stuttgart, 2013, pp. 206–207, no. 86.   quantities of porcelain and zinc, using them as ballast cargoes, to supply the demand
 p. 23.                 64   A Kraak dish unearthed in China from a tomb dated
 ascension to the Portuguese throne, recorded that there were, on the Rua Nova dos   54   Mentioned in Pinto de Matos, 2011, p. 128; and   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
 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   such a date. The excavated dish is discussed, but not   manifests of the Portuguese ships that made the inbound voyage from India, porcelain
 60
                          illustrated in Yao Chengqing and Yao Lianhong, ‘New
 number of Lisbon shops selling porcelain seems low if one considers the over 1,000   silk as diplomatic gifts.  Discoveries  of  Porcelain  Trays  for  Export  Produced   together with other small items such as furniture, boxes, fans and jewellery, were listed
 56   A. Caetano de Sousa, Provas da História Genealógica   in Years of Wan Li of the Ming dynasty’, Science and
 pieces of porcelain recovered from the shipwreck Espadarte (1558) and the significant   da Casa Real Portuguesa, Lisbon, 1948, vol. III, pp.   Technology of Ancient Ceramics 3, Proceedings of   under the designation miudezas.  According to Boyajian, the heterogenous category
                                                                                        71
 quantities of porcelain that were both displayed and used as tableware by the royalty   525–526;  Jordan  Gschwend,  1998,  p.  214;  Pinto  de   the  International  Symposium  (ISAC),  1995,  p.  411.   of miudezas rarely accounted to more than 100 or 200 quintals per carrack. Boyajian
                                                                                                                           72
 Matos, 2011, p. 129; and Canepa, 2014/1, pp. 20–21.
                          Mentioned in Maura Rinaldi, ‘Dating Kraak porcelain’
 and high-ranking nobility as early as the 1560s, discussed above.  Recent research,   57   Published in Paulo César Santos, ‘As porcelanas da   in Kraak begeerlijk porselein uit China,  Vormen uit   notes that porcelain was perhaps sold for 500 cruzados the quintal in Lisbon, and that
 61
 China no velho mosteiro de Santa Clara-a-Velha de   Vuur, no. 180/181, 2003/1–2, p. 32; Canepa, 2008/2,
 however, has shown that the Rua Nova dos Mercadores was the principal commercial   Coimbra’, Oriente, no. 3, August 2002, pp. 56–57; and   p. 23; Teresa Canepa, ‘The Portuguese and Spanish   the annual shipments were worth less than 10,000 cruzados.  It is important to note
                                                                                                               73
 street in Renaissance Lisbon, where shops selling not only porcelain, but also Asian   Paulo César Santos, ‘The Chinese Porcelain of Santa   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
 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,   Society, Vol. 73, 2008–2009, p. 61; and Teresa   the formation of a trading company for India, the Junta Preparatória da Comphania de
 fig. 15. The convent of Santa Clara-a-Velha was built   Canepa, ‘The Portuguese and Spanish Trade in Kraak
 store fronts. It also has suggested the possibility that the merchants, captains and   with the patronage of Queen Isabella of Aragon   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.
 sailors who arrived from Asia immediately sold their miudezas, including porcelain   (1271–1336), wife of King Dinis (r. 1279–1325). The   65   Ten private kilns where  Kraak porcelain was fired   who had been president of the Senate of Lisbon and president of the preparatory
 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   have been discovered so far. These kilns, located in   committee, was appointed President of the newly formed  Comphania de Comércio
 62
 permission to relocate the convent in 1505, but the   the Old City Zone of Jingdezhen, are: Guanyinge,
 blue-and-white porcelain, known as Kraak, was already substantial.  This porcelain,   community of the Poor Clares only moved to the new   Lianhualing, Dongfeng ci chang, Dian ci chang,   da Índia (hereafter India Company), which received its charter on 17 August 1628.
 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,   Liujiaxianong,  Shibaqiao,  Renmin  ci  chang,  The Crown was the major shareholder of the India Company, which was to take over
 64
                          Cidubaihuo, Guihuanong and Xinhua ci chang. Cao
 in large quantities at several private kilns in Jingdezhen  almost exclusively for export   decorated with underglaze cobalt blue on the interior   Jianwen and Luo Yifei, ‘Kraak Porcelain Discovered at   responsibility  for  organizing  and  dispatching  to  India  on  behalf  of  the  Crown  the
 65
 and red enamel and gold on the exterior, is published   Some Kiln Sites in Jingdezhen City in Recent Years’,
 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   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
 Asia (Appendix 2).  It seems likely that the development of this new style of export   Século de um Porto Internacional. The First Century   66   According  to  Wu,  no  particular  term  was  used  in   da Índia.  The India Company, however, collapsed in 1633.
 66
                                                                    74
 of An International Port, exhibition catalogue, Centro
                          China to designate Kraak porcelain during the Ming
 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.   dynasty. Ruoming Wu, The Origins of Kraak Porcelain
 no. 7. The yellow shard is published and discussed   in the Late Ming Dynasty, PhD Thesis, Institute of
 when he ascended to the throne in 1567. Thinly-potted and densely decorated in a   in Mathilda Amélia Gonçalves Larsson,  Estudo e   East Asian Art History, Ruprecht-Karls University,
 136   Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer    Trade in Chinese Porcelain                                                                 137
   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143