Page 208 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

1O1 (
DISH WITH BRACKETED RIM

mid-iqth century
Chinese, Yuan period
porcelain
diameter 46 (iSVs)
references: Washington 1966, no. 277; Krahl and
Erbahar 1986, 490, no. 553
Topkapi Sarayi Muzesi, Istanbul

White on blue designs decorate this dish, which is
part of the celebrated collection of Chinese porce-
lains begun by the Ottomans in the fifteenth cen-
tury. Its base —marked by a firing crack —is
designed in concentric circles. The outermost
circle consists of eighteen petal panels filled alter-
nately with flaming pearls and a variety of auspi-
cious objects — lingzhi mushrooms, conch shells,
lozenges, bell, rhinoceros horn cups, and cash.
Inside these panels are four ruyi panels on a wave
ground enclosing chrysanthemum sprays. At the
center is a single chrysanthemum blossom
enclosed by six petal panels with flaming pearls.
The cavetto is filled with a peony scroll and the
flat rim bears crested waves. On the reverse of
the cavetto is a lotus scroll. The petal-panel motif
may be an adaptation of the Arabic latters lam and
alif with serifs joined above, which could indicate
a Chinese response to demand from Middle East-
ern markets. It is more likely derived from the
lobed panels of fine Chinese metalwork of earlier
periods, though, since the indiscriminate mixture
of Buddhist and Daoist motifs enclosed by the
petal panels scarcely points to a clearly focused
Muslim market. J.M.R.

1O2

DISH
c. 1480
Turkish, Iznik, Ottoman
under glaze-painted fritware
diameter 44.5 (i/Vzj
references: Unver 1958; Raby and Atasoy 1989,
76-81, figs. 57 and 279
Gemeentesmuseum, The Hague

By 1400, Chinese blue and white porcelains were
being widely imitated in the lands of Islam, and
Yuan and early Ming prototypes remained in
fashion for many decades thereafter. Apart from
mass-produced imitations — many of which were
crafted in named workshops in Mamluk Egypt
that were active over several generations — little
is known of where these early works were made.
Tabriz may well have been an important market
or kiln site in the fifteenth century.
Although evidence now suggests that much
finer, almost convincing copies of early Ming blue

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 207