A rare faience bottle decorated in two shades of cobalt-blue pigment on tin white enamelled ground. Dating from the first half of the 17th century, it is characterised by a globular flattened body resting on short circular recessed foot, and by a long and narrow cylindrical neck terminating in flaring projecting rim.

Its rounded belly features a broad and continuous Chinese landscape, characterised by rock outcrops and three pagodas, or temples, of which two consist of four tiered towers and the third of a three-storey structure, wrapped by stylized foliage and floral ornamentation. This central composition is surmounted by a necklace-like frieze of spirals, adjacent to a pair of threads that define the base of the vertically emerging neck. Beneath it, a band of encircling and radial decoration, which we interpret as a vertical fence of arrow shaped finials, that attempts at replicating the sharpen plane three leaves that surround the foot or the mouth of some porcelain objects. In this instance it alternates with ruyi heads, another typically Chinese ornamental element. It rests on a cobalt blue coloured foot.

From the shoulder, various straight and sinuous leaves, or strips, raise upwards towards the flaring neck rim.

This type of bottle, although representative of formal typologies recorded in Portuguese 17th century faience, does also allude to Chinese prototypes dating from the reign of Emperor Chong Zhen (1611-1644), the last Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) sovereign[1]. Its ornamental characteristics, however, are predominantly Chinese, not only for the presence of the cobalt oxide pigments, whose various densities reinforce and highlight specific surface areas, but also for the decorative motifs that the Portuguese potter adapted to the vessel’s shape, with clear precision.

The origin of the continuous spirals’ frieze, although very likely relating to Chinese cloud depictions or to the “spiral necklace” motif seen in porcelain wares produced during the reign of Emperors Chenghua (1464-1487) and Wanli (1572-1620)[2], can also, according to João Pedro Monteiro, relate to 16th century Spanish faience production from Valencia.

A most unusual object for its evident combination of various decorative components, it does also, in addition to the previously referred Chinese elements, introduce a distinctive European foliage detail, seen near the two tallest pagodas. This decorative motif, typical of a family of Italian Majolica said of “Persian Trellis”, “Persian Palm” or “Persian Lattice”, is, in its original version, formed by a branch of eight sharpened petals held by a vertical stem[3] (Fig. 1). In this instance, recreating it in triangular schematic fashion, the potter fails to include the correct number of petals.

Beyond its decorative characteristics, and comparatively to the formal templates of 17th century Portuguese faience, this bottle’s singularity and creativity is clearly reflected in its elegant bulging shape.

(Bottle Detail) Fig. 1

Fig. 1 – “Persian palm” decorated Albarello (1540-70) - Museum of Sacred Art of Massa Marittima.

Teresa Peralta

Bibliography:

- CASIMIRO, Tânia Manuel, Faiança Portuguesa nas Ilhas Britânicas dos finais do século XVI aos inícios do século XVIII, Dissertação de Doutoramento em História especialidade arqueologia apresentada à FCSU-UNL, Lisboa, UNL, 2010, (texto policopiado).

- SANTOS, Reynaldo dos, Faiança Portuguesa, Séc. XVI e XVII, Porto, Livraria Galaica, 1960.

- MONCADA, Miguel Cabral, Faiança Portuguesa séc. XVI a séc. XVIII, Lisboa, Scribe, 2008.

- PAIS, Alexandre Manuel Nobre da Silva, “Fabricado no Reino Lusitano o que antes nos vendeu tão caro a China”: a produção de faiança em Lisboa, entre os reinados de Filipe II e D. João V, PhD doctoral thesis, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto, 2012.

[1] See: Jessica Harrison–Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, The British Museum Press, 2001, p. 288, cat. 11:26.

[2] João Pedro Monteiro, in A Influência Oriental na Cerâmica Portuguesa do século XVII (Cat.), M.N.Az.,1994, p. 28.

[3] In Italy, the most celebrated example of the “Persian Lattice” is the Majolica floor at the Saint Sebastian chapel in Bologna’s Saint Petronius Basilica, commissioned to Bettini and Petrus Andrea di Faenza in 1487; or the Majolica apothecary jar at the Louvre Museum collection in Paris (Invº. OA 8233); Cf.: H. P. Fourest, La Ceramique Européene, Paris, 1988, pp. 60-62. ; Cf. Fig .1.