Period:Qing dynasty Production date:1740-1760 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:
Dimensions:Diameter: 23 centimetres
Description:
‘Grisaille’-and-gold painted plate with the portrait of a German religious reformer. The plate is painted in ‘grisaille’ and gold with a portrait bust of Dr. Martin Luther (1483-1546), identified by the initials ‘Dr.M.L.’ below his image, flanked by two cherubs with feathered bodies, and with a swan above. In a separate cartouche below is Christ preaching to the Twelve Apostles. The plate has an elaborate rim border with six alternating scenes of boar and deer hunts.
IMG
![图片[1]-plate BM-Franks.592-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Qin dynasty/Ceramics/mid_00358357_001.jpg)
![图片[2]-plate BM-Franks.592-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Qin dynasty/Ceramics/mid_00301085_001.jpg)
![图片[3]-plate BM-Franks.592-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Qin dynasty/Ceramics/mid_RRC688_2.jpg)
Comments:Harrison-Hall and Krahl 1994:Dr. Martin Luther was the leader of the Protestant Reformation of the Christian Church in northern Europe and made an important and influential new translation of the Bible. The design on the present plate was taken from the lower half of an engraving by the Dutch artist Frans Brun (active 1627-48), which was used on the title page of a Dutch Lutheran Bible revised by Adolph Visscher and known as “Visscher’s Bible”, published in Amsterdam, 1648 (see an edition in the British Library, 3035.d.4). Comparison of the Chinese plate and the print, which was made from an engraved copper plate, shows that even minute details of the engraving were copied onto the porcelain. This Bible and its title page were reprinted many times and the Chinese porcelain painters may in fact have been copying a later edition than the one illustrated. Only plates with this design are known (some with different borders) and it has been suggested that they were made as Protestant commemorative pieces, possibly commissioned for the bicentenary of Martin Luther’s death in 1746 (Howard and Ayers, 1978, vol. I, p. 254), rather than being part of a dinner service. A plate with a different border is in the Mottahadeh collection (ibid., pl.248); another with a later simplified version of this design and dated 1756 on the reverse is in a private Brazilian collection (Veiga, 1989, pl. 111).
Materials:porcelain
Technique:
Dimensions:Diameter: 23 centimetres
Description:
‘Grisaille’-and-gold painted plate with the portrait of a German religious reformer. The plate is painted in ‘grisaille’ and gold with a portrait bust of Dr. Martin Luther (1483-1546), identified by the initials ‘Dr.M.L.’ below his image, flanked by two cherubs with feathered bodies, and with a swan above. In a separate cartouche below is Christ preaching to the Twelve Apostles. The plate has an elaborate rim border with six alternating scenes of boar and deer hunts.
IMG
Comments:Harrison-Hall and Krahl 1994:Dr. Martin Luther was the leader of the Protestant Reformation of the Christian Church in northern Europe and made an important and influential new translation of the Bible. The design on the present plate was taken from the lower half of an engraving by the Dutch artist Frans Brun (active 1627-48), which was used on the title page of a Dutch Lutheran Bible revised by Adolph Visscher and known as “Visscher’s Bible”, published in Amsterdam, 1648 (see an edition in the British Library, 3035.d.4). Comparison of the Chinese plate and the print, which was made from an engraved copper plate, shows that even minute details of the engraving were copied onto the porcelain. This Bible and its title page were reprinted many times and the Chinese porcelain painters may in fact have been copying a later edition than the one illustrated. Only plates with this design are known (some with different borders) and it has been suggested that they were made as Protestant commemorative pieces, possibly commissioned for the bicentenary of Martin Luther’s death in 1746 (Howard and Ayers, 1978, vol. I, p. 254), rather than being part of a dinner service. A plate with a different border is in the Mottahadeh collection (ibid., pl.248); another with a later simplified version of this design and dated 1756 on the reverse is in a private Brazilian collection (Veiga, 1989, pl. 111).
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![[Qing Dynasty] British female painter—Elizabeth Keith, using woodblock prints to record China from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China—1915-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image-191x300.png)
