Page 133 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

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KATZENELNBOGEN BOWL

c. 1434-1453
bowl, late iqth/early i$th century celadon ware,
probably from Longquan
mount silver gilt, partly enameled
height (with cover) 20.6 (SVs)
references: Pelliot 1959-1973, 808-809; Whitehouse
1973, 71; Spallanzani 1978, 83-84; Lunsingh
f
Scheurleer 1980, 9-10, ig. 4; Ayers 1985, 262;
Carswell 1985; Kassel 1990,10-13, 215-218, no. i

Hessisches Landesmuseum, Staatliche
Kunstsammlungen, Kassel

The Katzenelnbogen bowl is first mentioned in
an inventory, compiled in 1483, of the possessions
of Landgrave Heinrich m, where it is described
as a gilt cup with cover and identified as an Asian
ceramic ("Ein vergoldeter Pokal mit Deckel,
genannt die Erde von Indien"; Indian in this case
simply means Asian). In an inventory of 1594
we are told that the cup was brought back from
the orient by one of the Katzenelnbogen counts
("ein Graff von Catzenelnbogen auss Orient
Mitt sich in diese Landte brachtt").
The bowl is a typical example of Chinese
celadon ware, probably from Longquan, of the
late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. It was
probably purchased by Philipp the Elder, count
of Katzenelnbogen, during his pilgrimage to the
Holy Land from 14 July 1433 to 3 May 1434; this
would accord with the information given in the
1594 inventory. He may have bought it in Acre;
an account of his life written by an anonymous
author and later versified tells that merchants
from all over the world could be found there.
Chinese wares were relatively easy to obtain in
the Near East, for they had been exported there
for centuries (for the export of Chinese blue-and-
white porcelain to the Islamic world, see Carswell
1985). In western Europe they were still of the
utmost rarity. To set off his "Indian" treasure,
Count Philipp had it mounted by a silversmith in
a Rhenish workshop as a cup with a broad stem
and a six-lobed foot; the cover was decorated with
an enameled acorn, held by foliage, which origin-
ally (as we know from descriptions of the piece in
two inventories of 1500 and 1502) was completely
blue and surmounted by a pearl. The pearl has
now disappeared. The enameled coats of arms to have been brought to Europe before 1500. The poison, and whatever there may be inside, poison
have been identified as those of Philipp von so-called Marco Polo Jar in the Treasury of San or anything drinkable, it absorbs all the impuri-
Katzenelnbogen before he became count of Dietz Marco in Venice may well have come to Europe at ties, etc. of the poison and purifies it entirely"
in 1453. a later date (Whitehouse 1973, 71-72). (Pelliot 1959-1973, 808-809). Chinese ware, as
The Gaignieres-Fonthill vase (cat. 15), the In medieval times, Chinese porcelains were we have seen (cat. 15), was still rare in Europe
Katzenelnbogen bowl, and another dish in Long- believed to offer protection from poison. This at the end of the fifteenth century. Only after
quan celadon ware that was given by the sultan of belief is reflected, for example, in the Libellus de Vasco da Gama opened the new maritime route
Egypt Qa'it Bay to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1487 notitia orbis (On Knowledge of the World) of to the Middle and the Far East in 1498 did por-
(Spallanzani 1978, 85-86, pis. 21-22) are the only 1402: "Noblemen eat and drink from these ves- celain become more common in European
Chinese ceramics known today that can be shown sels. Porcelain is said to be efficacious against countries. J.M.M.

132 CIRCA 1492