Page 356 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

as gifts the Namban lacquer coffer of this shape (kamaboko) and the chest still preserved
today in the Reliquary room of the Monastery of the Encarnación in Madrid to
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Queen Margaret of Austria (1584–1611), to thank her for the lucrative business of
selling the licenses for two commercial expeditions to Japan, which had been given by
Philip III to his wife in order to finance the construction of the monastery. Although
there is not enough documentary evidence, textual sources suggest that Cron supplied
Japanese lacquers to the royal courts of both Lisbon and Madrid. The chest with
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a flat lid in the Monastery, which was financed by Queen Margaret of Austria and
finished in 1616, may have been made to order as an altar and Eucharist coffer. This is
suggested by the lacquer decoration of its front side, consisting of scrolling grape vines
probably symbolizing the Eucharist, which relates stylistically to that of the pyx in
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the Kanagawa Tōkei-ji Temple in Kamakura, and the two oratories now housed in the
Kyoto National Museum and the Tsukumi City Collection, mentioned earlier, as well
as of a cylindrical box with a flat lid in the Pallazo Pitti in Florence.
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Another example of hybrid influences is the lacquer cabinet made after a European
writing desk, known as escritório in Portuguese and vargueno in Spanish, which is
of wide rectangular form or of small cubic form with small drawers of varying sizes
concealed behind a fall front door with a lock, with a metal carrying handle on top of
the lid or on the sides (Fig. 4.1.1.2.4). The cabinets of wide rectangular form appear
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to have been the most commonly produced, showing great differences in height, width,
and door and drawer arrangement. It is not known whether the Portuguese provided
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the lacquer craftsmen with a European or Indo-Portuguese model, such as the example
veneered with various woods and inlaid with ivory dating to the late sixteenth or early
seventeenth century in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Fig. 4.1.1.2.5). Some of the
cabinets, made without the fall front door, had a central drawer of architectural form
like that on many examples with fall front doors, which resembled that of cabinets
161 Published in García Sanz, 2003, p. 139, pls. VII.8 and
167
VII.7, respectively. made in Flanders (present-day Belgium) in the sixteenth century. Others, such as
162 Annemarie Jordan Gschwend and Almudena Pérez the extant example now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, have three rows
de Tudela, ‘Exotica Habsburgica. La Casa de Austria
y las Collecciones Exóticas en el Renacimiento of drawers, the upper row with one full width drawer, and the other two with three
Temprano’, in Mola and Martínez Shaw, 2003,
pp. 32–34. I am grateful to Annemarie Jordan smaller drawers each. This cabinet, dating to c.1580–1600, is one of the earliest pieces
Gschwend for this information. of lacquer recorded in Europe. It is believed that the cabinet may have been listed in
163 For this opinion, see Kawamura, 2013, p. 272.
164 Published and discussed in Francesco Morena the inventory of the Kunstkammer of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague in 1607. An
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(ed.), Di Linea e di Colore. Il Giappone, le sue arti
e l’incontro con l’occidente – Line and Colour. apparently unique cabinet of relatively small rectangular shape without a fall-front, but
Japanese Arts and the European Connection, made soley with a row of three horizontal drawers, is of particular interest to this study
exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 2012,
pp. 356–357, no. II.52. because its Namban style decoration includes an inscription written in Portuguese.
165 For a discussion and three examples of these
cabinets and further bibliographical references, see The top of this cabinet, now in a private collection in Japan, is decorated in makie with
Vinhais and Welsh, 2008/1, pp. 212–225, nos. 20-22. two rows of three almost square-shaped sections, each containing two letters, which
166 Most cabinets have a fall front door, but a few
examples of wide rectangular form with either a are thought to read: NOSA PENA FOGUE [Writing flies as Quickly as thought].
single or a pair of side opening doors are known.
For examples of these latter types in the Museu do The odd placement of the pairs of letters within the six sections making the sentence
Oriente in Lisbon and the Tranekæer Castle on the difficult to read may indicate that the lacquer craftsmen would have not been able
Danish island of Langeland, see Alexadra Curvelo,
in d’Oliveira Martins, 2010, pp. 107–108, no. 24; and to understand the Portuguese text, most probably provided by the individual who
Fig. 4.1.1.2.3a Namban coffer Boyer, 1959, pls. XXX and XXXI, nos. 26, 26a and 26b;
Momoyama/early Edo period respectively. ordered the cabinet in printed form, and thus made a mistake when copying it. The
Late sixteenth/early seventeenth century 167 Mentioned in Mendes Pinto, 1990, p. 81. For inscription suggests that the cabinet was intended to keep writing implements, and
Dimensions: 33.5cm x 51cm x 24cm examples of this type in the Museu Nacional de Arte
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Height: 33.5cm; width: 51cm; depth: 24cm Antiga and the Museum do Oriente, both in Lisbon, perhaps also paper.
Itsuô Art Museum, Osaka see Ibid., p. 80 and Curvelo, ‘Contador-Cabinet’, in Cubic cabinets with a front door hinged to open downwards, typically fitted with
d’Oliveira Martins, 2010, pp. 112–114, no. 26.
168 Trnek and Vassallo e Silva, 2001, p. 228, cat. 106.
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Fig. 4.1.1.2.3b Rattan case Discussed in Impey and Jörg, pp. 79 and 120–123, nine drawers, occupied only a small space on the table where writing was performed,
Late sixteenth/early seventeenth century ill. 225. or were placed on a carved stand that was specially made for it at the time it arrived at
Height: 38.5cm; width: 60cm; depth: 32cm 169 Published in Ibid., p. 123, ill. 227. its destination. These cabinets were mostly decorated in the Namban style with dense
Itsuô Art Museum, Osaka 170 Mendes Pinto, 1990, p. 87.

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