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拍品專文
This tray is a product of the brief, dynamic period of interaction between East and West around 1600, a period that produced some remarkable art. Between 1571 and 1640 Portuguese traders accompanied by Jesuit missionaries sailed into the Bay of Nagasaki once a year in an enormous carrack. Until 1624 there was also a small trade between the Japanese and the Spanish, who were based in the Philippine Islands. The Dutch East India Company arrived in 1609.
The Portuguese took advantage of local craftsmanship to commission utensils that they could use in their new churches in Japan or export to the West for profit. Late 16th-century Japanese lacquer was highly prized in Europe and most Nanban [southern barbarian] lacquers, so called because the Iberian traders came to Japan from the south, have been found in recent years in the West. The tray shown here was in a collection in Lisbon.
Nanban lacquers are characterized by a density of decoration that seems quite un-Japanese, and this example is no exception. The birds and flowers as well as the thatched, tiled and turreted buildings are overlapped and so crowded together that the design is difficult to decipher. No surface is left uncovered. The formal geometric borders and strong symmetry are also alien to traditional Japanese design.
The Nanban lacquers are distinguished by their use of sparkling mother-of-pearl, a technique that achieved great popularity at this time. On this tray it is particularly effective in highlighting the birds, mandarin orange trees and bellflowers and in suggesting the voluminous, starched white robes worn by Japanese courtiers. There are two possible sources of influence for the increased use of shell. Portuguese traders in Goa acquired objects with wood and ivory inlay produced by Indian craftsmen. Simultaneously, Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea in the late 16th century may have exposed the Japanese to Korean lacquers, which are lavishly decorated with shell inlay. The mother-of-pearl provided a surface that would glitter by candlelight in a dark interior like a Christian chapel. A rather coarse craftsmanship is typical of these early lacquers intended for export but, like the Momoyama period itself, Nanban lacquers are energetic and eclectic, qualities that outweigh deficiencies of technique.
The design almost certainly alludes to the Tale of Genji, an epic novel of court life written in the early eleventh century by Lady Murasaki. A large ox-drawn cart approaches a barrier gate and a party on horseback arrives from the left. In each group there is an attendant carrying a furled umbrella. At the upper left is a luxurious two-story mansion where a court noble sits on the veranda. This scene is balanced at the lower right by a cluster of more humble dwellings representing a village setting. The ox-drawn cart and gate suggest the iconography of Chapter 16, Sekiya [The Gatehouse] in which the lady of the locust shell pulls aside her carriage at the Osaka barrier to let Genji and his party pass. By the late 16th century these classical images, once the prerogative of the educated aristocracy, had spread into every level of society. Genji manuals were circulated to help the less literate but still there were misunderstandings and confusion. Often a simple motif such as an ox-cart (or even just the wheel from an ox-drawn cart) was enough to signify the tale. Genji motifs began to appear not only in paintings but also on women's silk robes, ceramics, metalwork and lacquer.
The imagery on this tray is an inventive melange evoking a courtly world of bygone glory. Intended to dazzle the eye, it may be an example of Far Eastern chinoiserie for the West.
The Portuguese took advantage of local craftsmanship to commission utensils that they could use in their new churches in Japan or export to the West for profit. Late 16th-century Japanese lacquer was highly prized in Europe and most Nanban [southern barbarian] lacquers, so called because the Iberian traders came to Japan from the south, have been found in recent years in the West. The tray shown here was in a collection in Lisbon.
Nanban lacquers are characterized by a density of decoration that seems quite un-Japanese, and this example is no exception. The birds and flowers as well as the thatched, tiled and turreted buildings are overlapped and so crowded together that the design is difficult to decipher. No surface is left uncovered. The formal geometric borders and strong symmetry are also alien to traditional Japanese design.
The Nanban lacquers are distinguished by their use of sparkling mother-of-pearl, a technique that achieved great popularity at this time. On this tray it is particularly effective in highlighting the birds, mandarin orange trees and bellflowers and in suggesting the voluminous, starched white robes worn by Japanese courtiers. There are two possible sources of influence for the increased use of shell. Portuguese traders in Goa acquired objects with wood and ivory inlay produced by Indian craftsmen. Simultaneously, Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea in the late 16th century may have exposed the Japanese to Korean lacquers, which are lavishly decorated with shell inlay. The mother-of-pearl provided a surface that would glitter by candlelight in a dark interior like a Christian chapel. A rather coarse craftsmanship is typical of these early lacquers intended for export but, like the Momoyama period itself, Nanban lacquers are energetic and eclectic, qualities that outweigh deficiencies of technique.
The design almost certainly alludes to the Tale of Genji, an epic novel of court life written in the early eleventh century by Lady Murasaki. A large ox-drawn cart approaches a barrier gate and a party on horseback arrives from the left. In each group there is an attendant carrying a furled umbrella. At the upper left is a luxurious two-story mansion where a court noble sits on the veranda. This scene is balanced at the lower right by a cluster of more humble dwellings representing a village setting. The ox-drawn cart and gate suggest the iconography of Chapter 16, Sekiya [The Gatehouse] in which the lady of the locust shell pulls aside her carriage at the Osaka barrier to let Genji and his party pass. By the late 16th century these classical images, once the prerogative of the educated aristocracy, had spread into every level of society. Genji manuals were circulated to help the less literate but still there were misunderstandings and confusion. Often a simple motif such as an ox-cart (or even just the wheel from an ox-drawn cart) was enough to signify the tale. Genji motifs began to appear not only in paintings but also on women's silk robes, ceramics, metalwork and lacquer.
The imagery on this tray is an inventive melange evoking a courtly world of bygone glory. Intended to dazzle the eye, it may be an example of Far Eastern chinoiserie for the West.