Christian Chinese cloisonné | Encyclopedia MDPI

Christian Chinese cloisonné: Comparison

Please note this is a comparison between Version 2 by Jason Zhu and Version 1 by Alberto Ángel Vela-Rodrigo.

Cloisonné is the technique of creating designs on metal vessels with colored-glass paste placed within enclosures made of copper or bronze wires, which have been bent or hammered into the desired pattern. Known as cloisons (French for “partitions”), the enclosures generally are either pasted or soldered onto the metal body. The first written reference of Cloisonné in China is in Cao Zhao’s Gegu yaolun (格古要論)), or Important discussions about assessing antiques (1388), where it is called “Dashi (‘Muslim’) ware”. However, the oldest known pieces in China correspond to the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). Similarly, in Cao Zhao’s book, cloisonné was associated with the trousseau of elite ladies, but was not yet considered appropriate for the art collection of refined literati. In Chinese cloisonné, blue is the predominant color, and the Chinese name for the technique is jingtailan (“blue Jingtai objects”) referring to Emperor Jingtai (r. 1449–1457), in whose times the production of these objects flourished. By the late Ming Dynasty, cloisonné passed from the trousseau of the Chinese elite ladies and Buddhist temples to the collections of the literati as an exquisite object to integrate into the Chinese artistic tradition. What is more, it was even part of sets of offerings in Confucian mausoleums and in the halls of representation of power in the Forbidden City. To achieve the definitive implantation of Christianity in China, since the 17th century the Jesuit missionaries used the adaptationist method in their preaching and artistic practices to be able to empathize with Chinese audiences. Thus, they used Western models, but adaptingadapted to the visual language and the ornamental and symbolic motifs of the Chinese artistic tradition. In any case, the Jesuits aimed to convert the elites first. To do this, they used artistic and literary means already established in the Chinese culture of the literati, such as cloisonné precious objects and Chinese inscriptions. Thus, these objects of art are not only situated within a dialogue between the West and the East but also within the stratification of the Chinese society that the Jesuits took into consideration.

Among the innovations applied to cloisonné as a result of contact with the West is the use of pink color called “Cassius purple”, a pigment that had been introduced by the Jesuits in China at the end of the 17th century and which began to be used in Chinese cloisonné during the reign of Yongzheng (r. 1723–1736). On the other hand, from the beginning of the 18th century, Emperor Kangxi (r. 1661–1722) had a cloisonné workshop among other imperial factories in Beijing. It is likely that there was a cloisonné workshop linked to the Beijing Catholic Cathedral (Tianzhutang or Nantang).

cloisonné
hybridization
Chinese art
China
Christianity
missionaries
westernisms
occidentalería
Christian art

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