dish BM-1979-1217.1

Period:Ming dynasty Production date:1520-1540 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:landscape,flower
Dimensions:Diameter: 52.70 centimetres Height: 11.40 centimetres Weight: 5.15 kilograms

Description:
Large porcelain serving dish with underglaze blue decoration. This large heavily potted serving dish has rounded sides and a broad unglazed base with a foot ring. It has misfired with underglaze blue decoration beneath a yellowish glaze. Inside it is decorated with a central flower head surrounded by four large bold peony blooms and foliage. It bears the monogram ‘IHS’ framed by a crown of thorns three times in the cavetto, alternating with medallions framing clouds and landscape motifs, and with a ‘ruyi’ and diaper border. Outside it is painted with a bold peony scroll.
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:The letters ‘IHS’ are the initial letters of the name Jesus in Greek transcription, and are also understood as an abbreviation of the Latin expression ‘Jesus Hominum Salvator’ [Jesus, Saviour of Mankind]. The sacred monogram became a popular device during the fifteenth century and later became emblematic of the Jesuits, whose order was founded in 1534. The crown of thorns symbolizes the torture Christ endured prior to his death and Resurrection. The Chinese designs, as well as the shape, way of potting and the misfired yellowish glaze of this dish, are all characteristic of porcelains exported to the Middle East and South-east Asia in the early sixteenth century. The dish therefore probably predates the arrival of the first Jesuit missionaries in China, soon after the order was founded. It is among the earliest Chinese porcelains with European inscriptions and motifs and was probably made for a Portuguese customer.Similar dishes are in the Museo Caramulo, Caramulo, Portugal; the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, with lions in place of peonies; the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden; and the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo. While these dishes were clearly intended for Portuguese customers, some of them were exported to the Middle East together with thousands of closely related export wares without such Christian emblems. This is suggested by the presence of two such dishes in the former collection of the Ottoman Sultans in Istanbul, as well as by the Leeuwarden dish, which was collected in the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah. Harrison-Hall and Krahl 1994:This dish is among the earliest Chinese porcelains decorated with European motifs and was made for the Portuguese market. The connection between China and Portugal goes back to 1513/14, when the first Portuguese arrived in China. During the following decades the Jingdezhen kilns in Jiangxi province made a variety of blue-and-white porcelains with Western inscriptions – personal names, religious phrases, Western dates – and with Western motifs, like the royal coat of arms of Manuel I (r.1495 – 1521), armillary spheres, or – as on the present piece – the Monogram of Christ within a crown of thorns. The Sacred Monogram became a popular device during the 15th century and later became emblematic of the Jesuits, whose order was founded in 1534. The crown of thorns is ubiquitous in Western religious art as a symbol of Christ’s Passion.The Chinese designs as well as the shape, way of potting and the misfired yellowish glaze of this dish are all characteristic of porcelains exported to the Middle East and Southeast Asia in the early 16th century. This dish therefore probably predates the arrival of the first Jesuit missionaries in China, soon after the order was founded.Similar dishes are in the Museo Caramulo, Caramulo, Portugal ( Pinto de Matos, 1993, p. 44) ; in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, Turkey ( Krahl, 1986, vol. II, no. 750 ) ; in the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands ( Harrisson, 1985, no. 62) ; and in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo ( Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, 1987, pl. 650) . While these dishes were clearly intended for Portuguese customers, some of them were exported to the Middle East together with thousands of closely related export wares without such Christian emblems. This is suggested by the presence of two such dishes in the former collection of the Ottoman Sultans in Istanbul, as well as by the Leeuwarden dish, which was collected in the Saudi Arabian port of Jiddah.