A small sized, deep, and scalloped tin-glazed tray of painted cobalt-blue decoration, resting on a raised oval foot. The central ellipticsection, featuring a composition with two rabbits resting on rockoutcrops by a riverbank, and centred by an exuberant floweringbush, is delimited by peripheral plain frieze. Completing the scene,depictions of wild peaches, a motif imported from symbolic Chineseornamentation, often present in porcelain objects.Extending down to the well, the elegantly scalloped lipis sectioned into eight cartouches, terminating in curly brackets,and decorated with peach tree branches alternating with ribbontied painting scrolls, a type of ornamentation that is common inChinese Kraak porcelain production. On the underside, a sequenceof four sinusoidal motifs, centrally placed within equal number ofsegments, delimited by peripheral bracket shaped filleting.This small tray clearly illustrates the creative impact ofChinese porcelain on 17th century Portuguese faience production.Although this cultural transfer deprived the various decorativeelements of their primary symbolic meaning, the central bush ofeccentric flower placed between the two facing rabbits — likely amale and female pair — as if alluding to a Tree of Life, has its originsin an ancestral iconography of creation and fertility, that iswidespread in Eastern culture. Portuguese 17th century faience didoften adopt this motif (fig. 1)1, that is also known from Chineseand Indian textiles and tiled altar fronts.The two hares, or rabbits, are featured squatting down. Oneraises its fore legs while turning its head backwards on the lookout for predators, a sentinel pose that is known on other Portuguesefaience objects. This element is also consequence of the potter’sassimilation of imagery that inhabits Chinese porcelain wares,such as the Kendi at the Topkapi Saray Museum, in Istanbul (Fig.1), or the pictorial mark on the underside of a plate (Fig. 2) as wellas other objects produced during Emperors Jiaqing (1522–1566)and Longqing (1567–1572) reigns.2Various legends have been associated to this animal speciesas the companion of the Moon Goddess Chang É. In Chinesemythology it is believed that the rabbit grinds the ingredients forpreparing the elixir of long life3, and Chinese poets often praisedthe jade rabbit (white rabbit) that eventually became the symbolof the moon.Similarly, the centrally placed peach trees and their fruitsalluded, in their origin, to love and immortality for those whoingested them. This imagery is repeated on the lip sections, alternatingwith painting scrolls, the badge of Chinese scholars, whichare in this instance misrepresented by the Portuguese potter whotransformed their wrapping ribbons into ‘aranhões’, large spiderlike decorative elements characteristic of 17th century Portuguesefaience iconography.
1 Mo Guo, 2019, p. 302.
2 Pinto de Matos, M. A., pp. 66–67.
3 Ströber, Eva, 2011, pp. 164–167.