Page 257 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

European influence on Chinese

Porcelain [3.4]

Fig. 3.4.1.1.1 Large blue-and-white saucer dish
bearing the ‘IHS’ monogram
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566)
Diameter: 52.7cm
British Museum, London
(museum no. 1979,1217.1)

A small number of surviving porcelain pieces decorated with European motifs or made Porcelain made to order for the Iberian market
after European shapes in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries are among
the most interesting porcelain to have been produced in China during the late Ming [3.4.1]
dynasty. In this section of Chapter III, the porcelain made to order for the European
market has been placed at the centre of this documentary and material study. The 808 References to porcelain orders in inventories of the European motifs [3.4.1.1]
selected pieces of porcelain discussed in the following pages not only reflect complex Portuguese monarchy are discussed in section 3.1.1 The earliest known porcelain to reflect European influence was made for the Portuguese
of this Chapter.
processes of cultural interaction that occurred between the European and Chinese junk 809 Although these pieces have been usually linked market during the reign of emperor Zhengde. Despite commercial relations between
merchants in Asia that are essential for understanding the unprecedented commercial to the Jesuits, they pre-date the foundation of the Portugal and China being prohibited during the subsequent reign of Jiajing, from
Society of Jesus. The IHS monogram, used from
expansion of the early sixteenth to mid-seventeenth centuries, but it also highlights the third century onwards, stands for the first three 1522 to 1554, the continuous and regular trade activities of the Portuguese in
letters of the name of Jesus Christ in Greek: iota, eta
the importance of long-distance mercantile and social networks in Asia, Europe and and sigma. This symbolic monogram continued to coastal provinces of southeast China left an impression on the porcelain produced
the New World, and reflects the profound political, economic and social changes that be used during the Middle Ages. It became popular at Jingdezhen. Written documents with references to specific orders of porcelain at
after the twelfth century when the Franciscan friar
took place in both Europe and China at the time. Our understanding of the European Bernardino of Siena (1380–1444) insisted on the this time are scant. There are however, a group of about 50 blue-and-white ewers,
808
devotion of the Holy Name of Jesus. The Society
demand of porcelain with European motifs, and later also with European shapes, of Jesus, after having been recognized officially by bottles, dishes and bowls recorded in public and private collections around the world,
has grown in the past decades, but is still limited. This section attempts to show to Pope Paul III in 1541, adopted the IHS monogram, which provide material evidence of special orders still being fulfilled during this
which by then was usually depicted surrounded by
what extent the orders of the Europeans, always placed through Chinese middlemen, rays of light. Until recently the motif encircling the period of clandestine trade, or soon after the establishment of Macao as a Portuguese
IHS monogram had been misinterpreted as a crown
influenced the porcelain produced at the private kilns in Jingdezhen and Zhangzhou of thorns. For this new interpretation, see Sargent, enclave in 1557. The porcelain combines traditional Chinese motifs with Buddhist,
over the time period of this study. 2012, pp. 49–50. Two shards of a dish, one depicting Daoist or Confucian connotations, with European motifs related to the Portuguese
part of the IHS monogram and the other part of the
Portuguese Royal coat-of-arms, excavated from a Crown, nobility and Christian church, such as the Portuguese royal coat-of-arms
layer dating to 1580–1598 at the former residence of
a daimyō near Osaka Castle in Osaka, demonstrate (always inverted), the armillary sphere (Fig. 2.3.1.8), the IHS monogram encircled
that such porcelains also circulated to countries by an olive or laurel (or bay) wreath (Fig. 3.4.1.1.1), and Portuguese or Latin
809
where the Portuguese traded regularly. Published
in The Excavation Report of the Naniwa Palace Site, inscriptions. These pieces, generally referred to as ‘first orders’, were made at private
series The Historical Investigation of the Forbidden
City of Naniwa, vol. IX, Osaka, 1992, inv. 1841 and kilns in Jingdezhen during the reigns of Zhengde and early Jiajing (Appendix 2). 810
1842; and Christiaan J.A. Jörg, ‘The Portuguese Recent archaeological excavations in both China and Portugal have yielded important
and the trade in Chinese porcelain. From the
beginning until the end of the Ming dynasty’, in A. material evidence of yet another Portuguese order made during the Zhengde reign.
Varela Santos (ed.), Portugal na Porcelana da China.
500 Anos de Comércio / Portugal in Porcelain from Shards of three blue-and-white dishes marked on their base with a cross motif (Fig.

256 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer Trade in Chinese Porcelain 257