A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Chinese porcelain 'embrechados' in Portuguese garden architecture
Chinese porcelain began to be integrated into the decoration of Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish palace interiors in the 16th century, but the use of porcelain for exterior decoration, such as in garden architecture, cannot be observed in the early modern times outside Portugal. Intact porcelain plates and the cut out wells (bottoms) of plates and bowls would be stuck in the character of medallions on internal and external surfaces of garden pavilions, chapels, and fountains, with tiny pieces of broken borders applied together to fill out cartouches. This technique of applying shells, stones, rocks, crystals, pieces of glass, ceramics, and ferrous slag onto walls and ceilings is known in Portuguese as embrechado. Although analogous examples of this technique are to be found in other parts of Europe — most notably in Italy — it was only in Portugal that Chinese porcelain was utilized. The influence of Italian grottos, such as those of the Boboli Gardens and Villa di Castello in Florence, is evident in Portuguese examples. Nevertheless, grotto design in Italy had an important sculptural component, whereas artists in Portugal privileged the mosaic-like technique of embrechado, which allowed them to put forward the visual qualities of materials, such as the colour and shine of porcelain, crystals, and Oriental nacreous shells, applied in abstract and figurative motives. This article studies such examples of Chinese porcelain embrechado decorations in Portugal and tries to establish the modalities of their creation, function and possible meanings.
Chinese porcelain 'embrechados' in Portuguese garden architecture
Chinese porcelain began to be integrated into the decoration of Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish palace interiors in the 16th century, but the use of porcelain for exterior decoration, such as in garden architecture, cannot be observed in the early modern times outside Portugal. Intact porcelain plates and the cut out wells (bottoms) of plates and bowls would be stuck in the character of medallions on internal and external surfaces of garden pavilions, chapels, and fountains, with tiny pieces of broken borders applied together to fill out cartouches. This technique of applying shells, stones, rocks, crystals, pieces of glass, ceramics, and ferrous slag onto walls and ceilings is known in Portuguese as embrechado. Although analogous examples of this technique are to be found in other parts of Europe — most notably in Italy — it was only in Portugal that Chinese porcelain was utilized. The influence of Italian grottos, such as those of the Boboli Gardens and Villa di Castello in Florence, is evident in Portuguese examples. Nevertheless, grotto design in Italy had an important sculptural component, whereas artists in Portugal privileged the mosaic-like technique of embrechado, which allowed them to put forward the visual qualities of materials, such as the colour and shine of porcelain, crystals, and Oriental nacreous shells, applied in abstract and figurative motives. This article studies such examples of Chinese porcelain embrechado decorations in Portugal and tries to establish the modalities of their creation, function and possible meanings.
Chinese porcelain 'embrechados' in Portuguese garden architecture
Cieminska, Joanna (author)
2022-07-01
oai:zenodo.org:7695666
Orientations 54(3) 142-149
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Chinese porcelain , porcelain , collecting , gardens , Portugal , palaces , architecture
DDC:
710
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