Fundação Oriente
It is a great honour that the Fundação Oriente was invited to co-organise the exhibition Reflections of Maritime Connections: 16th – 19th Century Sino-Portuguese Cultural Exchange held at the Macao Museum of Art in collaboration with the Palace Museum and the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR Government. This exhibition fits into the broader scope of collaboration between Fundação Oriente and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China and the China International Culture Association (CICA). This collaboration dates back to 1998 and has already included several projects in the fields of visual arts and performing arts, as well as the production of exhibitions in both China and Portugal, such as The Forbidden City exhibition held in Lisbon in 1992.
Portugal has played a pioneering role in the relations between the West and the East since the 16th century, particularly in maritime trade and cultural exchanges with China and several other Asian countries. Macao, where the Portuguese settled in 1557, became an important trading post for Sino-Portuguese relations, in which Chinese porcelain stood out since the beginning as a product of excellence that invoked fascination in the Western gaze.
Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese navigator who discovered the sea route to India, brought back several pieces of white Chinese porcelain decorated with a cobalt blue underglaze, which are believed to have been purchased in Calicut (India) during his journey to the East (1498), as a gift for the King of Portugal, D. Manuel I. By the early 16th century, during the reign of the Chinese Emperor Zhengde (1506–1521), the first orders of porcelain from China bearing Portuguese motifs – such as the armillary sphere, the royal coat of arms, the IHS monogram, and the coats of arms of illustrious men – were already being placed.
Chinese porcelain definitively entered Europe by sea around 1519 with the first orders for the Portuguese market. By the second half of the 16th century, several shops were already dedicated to selling these rare and exotic products, which would also be gifted by the kings of Portugal to other European courts.
The Chinese porcelain produced and exported from the 16th to the 19th centuries, was a valuable and prestigious commodity, a symbol of ostentation, exoticism, and wealth, and a unique expression of Chinese artistic genius.
The pieces belonging to the collection of the Fundação Oriente presented in this exhibition date from the end of the 16th century, with examples of the so-called ‘Kraakporselein’. The collection spans the 17th century and reached its peak in terms of decoration and production quality in the 18th century, with porcelain decorated with famille rose polychrome enamels and other pieces decorated in grisaille, black, sepia, and gold. Many feature European motifs based on different iconographic sources, such as engravings and drawings.
Over time, porcelain quickly became integrated into the daily life of the Portuguese people, from the royal family to the noble families and the clergy, who would place a variety of orders for serveware decorated with coats of arms to commemorate certain anniversaries and special events. This trend culminated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the so-called ‘Mandarin’ decoration and examples associated with the early years of the Portuguese Republic.
In recent years, Chinese porcelain has been a type of artwork in which the Fundação Oriente has sought to invest in acquisitions, with the aim of establishing the Museu do Oriente as a national and international reference for decorative arts in general, and particularly for Chinese export porcelain for the Western market.
I would like to thank the Government of the People’s Republic of China, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, the China International Culture Association (CICA), the Palace Museum, the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR Government, and the Macao Museum of Art, for the established contacts that led to the distinguished invitation extended to the Fundação Oriente to co-organise this exhibition and participate by loaning pieces from the Museu do Oriente’s collection.
This institutional cooperation is part of the statutory purposes of the Fundação Oriente, established in 1988 with the aim of pursuing cultural, educational, artistic, and scientific activities in Macao (where it has had a Delegation since that same year) in order to enhance and continue the bilateral relations of friendship, history, and culture between Portugal and China.
Carlos Augusto Pulido
Valente Monjardino
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Fundação Oriente