Delft and the Orient
Wednesday March 16th
Report of the conference by Edouard Williamson, Administrator of the Society of Friends of the National Museum of Ceramics, Sèvres
Edouard Williamson presented this conference to us as being the fruit of personal research that he has been carrying out for over thirty years. He brilliantly illustrated his point with numerous photos of objects mainly from private collections. The “porcelain” (Hollands Porceleyn) of Delft, which is in fact an earthenware, was born from a conjunction of disparate elements:
- The genius of the Batavians for maritime trade.
- The craze for Chinese porcelain, especially the blue on white decorations of the Ming period. Decorators used it everywhere in palaces and stately homes, on fireplaces, on furniture and even on walls. - The War of Independence which in the low Spanish countries gave birth to the United Provinces.
- The civil war in China, at the fall of the Ming dynasty. In the XVIe century, all trade with China goes through Lisbon. It is an empire of counters created at the beginning of the XVIe century culminating in 1557 with the concession of the Island of Macao that the Emperor of China grants to the Portuguese. Ming porcelain was at that time the prerogative of kings and princely courts. It is admired and considered magical for its translucency, its whiteness and its sound.
At the beginning of the XVIe century, Charles V is the most powerful monarch in Europe but he also controls, in the Pacific and the North Atlantic, maritime trade with a fleet of ocean-going vessels called Galleons while the Portuguese aboard their Caraques keep the monopoly of maritime trade in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
The term "kraak porceleyn" was given by the Dutch who captured at the beginning of the XVIIe century one of these caracks loaded with Ming porcelain that they sold under this name. Antwerp, in the XVIe century, is the largest port in the Western world and all maritime trade passes through it to be redistributed throughout Europe. Philippe II, inherited in 1555 from Charles V the crown of Spain, including the Netherlands ex Burgundians, then became king of Portugal in 1580, by personal union, thus reigning over all the oceans of the globe. Under his reign, war settled in the Netherlands.
- In 1575 William of Orange takes the head of the northern low countries renamed “United Provinces”.
- In 1580 to try to paralyze the country, Philippe II closed the port of Lisbon to the Dutch.
- In 1585 Alexandre Farnese, sent by Philippe II, installs the Inquisition in Antwerp which falls into his hands. Huguenots and Jews fled the Inquisition and left for the United Provinces, where they founded Amsterdam, which would now supplant Antwerp.
- In 1588, the "Invincible" Armada, which left to invade England from Elizabeth I, broke up in front of Gravelines under the combined effect of Sir Francis Drake's guns and the storm which chased the ships to the sea. Ireland.
- in 1595 the disclosure of maritime routes by Théodore de Bry, a Liège cartographer driven out by the Counter-Reformation and, above all, the publication of Jan Huyghen Van Lindschoten's Itinerarium will allow the Dutch to supply themselves directly in Asia. Amsterdam becomes the largest shipyard in Europe.
- In 1602 the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC was created, the world's first joint-stock company with 17 directors, 14 of whom were, at the beginning of the 17the century of Portuguese Jews. Thanks to the VOC, the Dutch will go to the commercial conquest of the East and found various counters of which the main one is Batavia (current Jakarta on the island of Java). The trade in spices, silk and porcelain will create significant fortunes in Holland as in the various counters. The Dutch mainly import so-called export porcelain made for Turkey and Persia, as well as pieces from kilns in operation under the last Ming such as Swatow (Zhangzhou in Guangdong).
- In 1644, the Ming are defeated by the Manchus who will found the Qing dynasty, but the civil war which destroys the ovens of Jingdezhen will last until 1682. During this period, South China will resist around the members of the imperial Ming family and the local kilns produced a porcelain called "transitional". However, the demand being very strong, the United Provinces will make up for the lack of porcelain from China by importing ceramics from Safavid Persia as well as porcelains from Japan but, above all, trying to imitate them in Delft. - In 1648 Spain will recognize the independence of the "republic" of the United Provinces.
Delft. Service in Rijstaffel. Cl. E. Williamson
Delft. Hoppenstein bottle. Cl. E. Williamson
At that time, Delft was a very important artistic center for the Orange family. The breweries ruined by the wars are ceded to the earthenware manufacturers whose trademarks reproduce the signs of the old brewers. In 1611, the Guild of Saint-Luc was formed, which brought together all those who made use of colors or used the brush. Delft earthenware is painted by painters.
Originally, all Dutch ceramics came from Italian majolica, the earth of which is ocher, heavy, non-sound and with a tin covered only on the obverse, the reverse being covered only with a lead enamel. In the XVIIe century, in Delft, wealthy families invest in the manufacture of earthenware and promote research to imitate porcelain. The use of alluvial soil and especially of Tournai soil will make it possible to obtain a whiter and lighter paste.
On the other hand, cooking in trays and no longer directly over a fire allows the removal of the pernettes which left marks on the face of the pieces and the use of a tin-bearing enamel on the reverse. At the beginning, the artists will scrupulously copy the Ming decorations they have in front of them and work in cobalt blue on a white background. A large service in Rijstaffel signed SVE is dated 1680s.
Delft. Vases rolls. Cl. E. Williamson
We continue, however, to import porcelain produced by kilns in southern China whose transitional decoration is characterized by architectures and gardens populated by mandarins. As said previously, the United Provinces also import ceramics from Safavid Iran which copy the Kraak decorations. These pieces are characterized by a black line which surrounds the motifs and the use of a recurring motif of three pearls, called "Cintamani" common to all Islam. These decorations will also be copied in Delft and the black line becomes a manganese blue-black.
The Dutch having recovered the enjoyment of the counter on the island of Dejima, opposite Nagasaki in Japan, import Imari porcelain that the artists of Delft will reproduce in earthenware despite the difficulty of the blue, red and gold decoration which requires several cooking. Kakiemon decorations will also be very popular and we will go so far as to over-decorate Chinese whites with a Japanese decor in the XNUMXth century.e century. As soon as the Jingdezhen kilns reopened in 1682 under the reign of Emperor Kangxi, the Chinese also copy Japanese porcelain at the request of the Dutch, given the excessively high price of Japanese productions.
Stability having then returned to China, the import of porcelain can resume but the Delft potters continue until the XNUMXth century.e century of creating pieces inspired by various Chinese styles for a bourgeois clientele. In Delft, artists do not hesitate to adapt and mix decors and shapes, sometimes drawing inspiration from Japanese pieces reinterpreting Chinese models. The “long ladies” decorations of the Kangxi period (1662–1722) were taken over and adapted to Delft around 1700. Under Kangxi, the polychrome decorations known as Famille Verte were fashionable and would inspire the artists of Delft.
Just as the representation of Guanyin (close to that of the Virgin, with the same connotation of compassion) will be produced in blue and white as well as in polychrome. Delft does not hesitate to mix the Kakiemon decor with the Famille Verte decor.
Delft. Butter dish with Famille Rose decoration. Cl. E. Williamson
Delft. Red and gold butter dish. Cl. E. Williamson
Under Yongzheng (1723–1735) porcelain decorated with red, iron and gold will be very popular and this decoration will also be reproduced by the Delftois on Dutch forms. The decorations of Famille rose of the Qianlong period (1736–1796) also inspired the artists of Delft. But at the end of the XVIIIe century, the diffusion of European porcelain and fine English earthenware will unfortunately lead to the decline of the Delftoise industry, as well as that of all European earthenware.
