European ceramic technology in the Far East: enamels and pigments in Japanese art from the 16th to the 20th century and their reverse influence on China

Riccardo Montanari,Nobuyuki Murakami,Maria Francesca Alberghina,Philippe Colomban,Salvatore Schiavone,Claudia Pelosi

doi:10.1186/s40494-020-00391-2

Abstract

The production of Japanese enamels for porcelain decoration was thought to have originated from the direct and exclusive influence of Chinese potters who moved to Japan during the chaotic Ming to Qing dynastic change in 1644. Recent systematic studies have identified, for the first time, the crucial influence of Jesuit missionaries on pigment and enamel production in Japan from the late 16th-century. In particular, such first encounter laid the foundation for the continued influence exerted by European technology on Japanese art throughout the centuries. The present study has further identified European enamels used for the decoration of polychrome wares fired in Arita, the porcelain production center of Japan. This continued exchange not only marked the Edo period, but also extended into the twentieth century. For the first time, the lack of written records regarding the use of western pigments for enamel production caused by the persecutions of European and Japanese Christians has been overcome in the work herein presented. The nature of the imported materials has been firmly identified and characterized. The analytical results (EDXRF and Raman) have finally revealed how western technology and materials not only kept influencing Japanese art during the isolation (sakoku) period, but also accompanied the strong westernization process that marked Japanese history from the late nineteenth century. Moreover, the significant reverse influence of Japanese-made enamels on Chinese polychrome porcelain production in the late Qing and twentieth century has been fully identified for the first time. Furthermore, results show that the shift of the Pb mode of lead antimonate (Naples Yellow) is affected by the firing temperature for enamel decoration, and that this characteristic, along with the chemical composition, enables the identification of the origin and manufacture period of the yellow enamel.

Highlights

Introduction and historical contextThe production of overglaze enamels in Japan was long thought to have originated from the direct and exclusive influence of Chinese potters in the mid seventeenth century [1, 2] when the collapse of the Ming dynastyMontanari et al Herit Sci (2020) 8:48 coloured porcelain and a European style painting created by a Japanese painter who studied at the Jesuit Seminario under the direction of the Italian Jesuit painter Giovanni Cola from 1583 [4]
The European Renaissance practice of using the same coloring agents both for paintings and ceramics was unquestionably confirmed by the matching compound detected on a Montanari et al Herit Sci (2020) 8:48 coloured porcelain and a European style painting created by a Japanese painter who studied at the Jesuit Seminario under the direction of the Italian Jesuit painter Giovanni Cola from 1583 [4]
We report here a non-destructive analysis carried out by X-Ray Fluorescence (ED-X-ray fluorescence (XRF)) and Raman spectroscopy in order to get more information on the use of these ceramic pigments, overcoming the daunting issue of the lack of written records regarding the use of western pigments and/or western technology for enamel production

Summary

Introduction

Introduction and historical contextThe production of overglaze enamels in Japan was long thought to have originated from the direct and exclusive influence of Chinese potters in the mid seventeenth century [1, 2] when the collapse of the Ming dynastyMontanari et al Herit Sci (2020) 8:48 coloured porcelain and a European style painting created by a Japanese painter who studied at the Jesuit Seminario under the direction of the Italian Jesuit painter Giovanni Cola from 1583 [4]. The production of sacred and secular images based on models imported from Europe, be it prints, engravings or paintings, involved the use of European pigments that did not exist in Japan at the time [3,4,5,6]. These new pigments marked Chinese enamel production from the early eighteenth century, after Jesuit missionaries were ordered by the Kangxi Emperor in 1695 to establish a glass workshop in the Palace to reproduce the enamels of western origin that had strongly impressed him [7, 8]. Both end-members of pyrochlore solid solutions (lead–tin yellow and lead antimonate yellow) as well as more complex solid solutions had been largely used since Roman times [20,21,22]

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