Exceptionally large Portuguese faience shallow plate, with a gently raising rim, enamelled in white glaze decorated in a dense and detailed cobalt-blue and manganese-purple ‘Desenho Miúdo’ pattern. The central composition, clearly inspired by Chinese porcelain models, depicts two Buddhist monks standing on a bridge under the shade of a large umbella, surrounded by dense floral motifs. The whole oriental scene framed by a band of acanthus leaf scrolls of clear western flavour. The rim, equally depicting an oriental inspired landscape, assumes a story like composition with buildings, a Dutch windmill, dogs, birds, trees, flowers, leaves and plumes in minute detail, perfectly within the general topic. On the reverse, four equidistant foliage branches. As mentioned previously, the characteristic symbolic allusions in Chinese porcelain decorative motifs, assume in Portuguese faience an exclusively decorative significance. The two Buddhist monks on the bridge may be related to ‘Journey to the West’, written by Wu Cheng'en around 1570. This epic narrates the story of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang's (602–664) pilgrimage to India, during which he and his companions while crossing a bridge, lost their bodily existence and turned into immortals. Of superb detail and quality, the rim ‘desenho miúdo’ decoration, of graphic albeit nervous stroke outlined in manganese-purple, fills the whole space in a characteristic horror vacui that promotes the artist’s creative freedom, giving origin to a hybrid yet original faience. The typically Dutch windmill image suggests the possibility of a Dutch commission or, more likely, a rather desperate attempt by the Portuguese potters at competing with the Delft workshops which, from 1660 onwards, will substantially increase their production to supply a growing and demanding market, a commercial move of enormous impact on the sales of the Lisbon produced faience. A similar piece, albeit with a single monk image, is referred by Reynaldo dos Santos, as belonging to the Viana do Castelo Museum1.


1 - Santos, Reynaldo dos, 1960, Est. XII.