D2503. Blue and White Chinoiserie Charger

Delft, circa 1680

Painted in the center with a Chinese man standing beside another seated in a landscape of trees, rocks and distant tower buildings, the cavetto and rim with a wide border of eight fan-shaped panels, four with a Chinese man seated or standing in a similar landscape alternating with four centering a large blossom within a scrolling leafy stem, all within a scalloped line at the edge, and the footrim pierced with two holes for suspension.

DIMENSIONS
Diameter: 39.6 cm. (15.6 in.)

NOTE
This Delft charger exemplifies how Dutch potters drew inspiration from both Chinese Wanli Kraak porcelain and the so-called transitional wares. Kraakporselein (Kraak porcelain) refers to the first Chinese porcelain wares to reach the Netherlands. The term Kraak is possibly derived from the Portuguese trading ships known as caraccas, which ,transported these porcelains to Europe.

The paneled border, characteristic of Chinese Kraak porcelain, is skillfully imitated on this Delft charger. However, the decoration within the panels and the central motif bear a closer resemblance to Chinese transitional-style wares. Unlike Kraakporcelain, transitional wares no longer adhered to strictly paneled compositions; instead, they featured continuous narrative scenes, often depicting landscapes with animals or figures engaged in conversation or dynamic action.Delftware painters adapted these narrative elements, incorporating figural subjects into their own decorative vocabulary, often set within landscapes featuring rock formations and pine trees. The composition of the present charger, though inspired by Chinese models, exhibits a distinctly Delft interpretation, blending Chinese motifs with European stylistic sensibilities. The resulting semi-Chinese aesthetic makes it a prime example of chinoiserie—a style that emerged in the seventeenth century and rapidly gained popularity across Europe, enduring through the first half of the eighteenth century.

SIMILAR EXAMPLES
A large charger with somewhat similar Ming-style decoration, from the collection of Dr. Günther Grethe, Hamburg, is illustrated in Aronson 2004, p. 19, no. 17. Another larger charger, 48.5 cm. (19.1 in.) in diameter, painted in the same manner is in the collection of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. no BK-NM-4690). Another, closer to the Rijksmuseum example, but of the same size as the present charger, in the collection of Edwin van Drecht, is illustrated in Scholten 1993, 131, no. 112.