Painted by fire: Jean Theodore Royer's Chinese enameled plaques - Collection from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam - Critical Essay

Magazine Antiques, Feb, 2004 by Jan Van Campen

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In one of the Western Wing plaques, the student Zhang is taking leave of the young girl Cui Yingying (Pl. IV). Both had been staying in a Buddhist monastery, where a romance had sprung up between them. The couple is standing in the center, and Zhang is sorrowfully saying that they must part ways. (9) The various pairs of animals--deer, mandarin ducks, and dogs--emphasize the bond between Zhang and Cui Yingying and convey wishes for a long life (deer) and marriage (dogs). Although the other plaque of this pair cannot yet be matched to a particular passage from the play, it undoubtedly portrays a scene from it. The same figures are recognizable, and it seems likely that the complicated architecture represents a part of the Buddhist monastery. (10)

The pair of plaques in Plates VI and VII show striking similarities to The Western Wing scenes. Although executed in polychrome enamels, certain elements are painted in exactly the same way as on the plaques in Plates IV and V, namely the balustrade, the clothing, the trees, and the ducks in the foreground (one of which is diving). The similarities are so great that both pairs may have been painted by a single studio.

It is not clear what the scenes on the plaques in Plates VI and VII portray, although they are most probably from a Chinese story. The man in the purple cloak looks very like the student Zhang in the previous plaques, so they could be scenes from The Western Wing. (11) The elderly man on the veranda in Plate VI is wearing tantric headgear; the man behind him is holding a jingle staff (a monk's decorative staff), and therefore can be identified as a tantric Buddhist monk or priest. The women in the foreground in Plate VI, holding swords and instruments and with rays emanating from their heads, do not seem to be realistic figures but are possibly male actors playing female parts. (12) The woman as swordfighter; a man's role by definition, is a theme that frequently occurs in Chinese literature. (13) It is also possible that this is a representation of a dream, for people dreaming are sometimes depicted in Chinese art with similar clouds emanating from their heads. The inscriptions in the leaf-shaped car-touches are barely legible, and as far as they can be read and translated offer little help in the interpretation of the scenes. The one in Plate VI appears to say "Chan guang tang" (Hall for the light of meditation) and the one on the other plaque (Pl. VII), "Ji Zhai" (Study for passing examinations).

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It is certainly noticeable that the scenes are set in the Pearl River estuary (Zhu Jiang Sanjiaozhou). The ships in the background of both plaques, although slightly muddled, are easily recognizable as European. It is not possible to precisely identify the flags, but the cross suggests Swedish, Danish, or possibly English ships.

The last group of porcelain plaques consists of four oval paintings (Pls. VIII-XI) stylistically related to the previous four examples. In one the same diving duck even recurs (see Pls. IX, IXa). Once again the subjects are difficult to interpret. Because the same personages crop up repeatedly, the plaques may depict scenes from a story. However, we may also be dealing with another popular Chinese theme, namely the painting of elegant women. In Plates VIII and IX the central figure seated at a table is clearly a learned lady (see also Pl. IXa). She is reading in Plate VIII, and, although she is doing her hair in Plate IX, while a child pulls at her mirror, books are plainly visible in the cupboard. Literate women were no matter of course in China, although their number was becoming larger in the seventeenth and especially the eighteenth centuries. (14) As a general rule, however, reading was reserved for courtesans on the one hand and for ladies from the highest echelons of society on the other--two strictly separate worlds. The open cupboards in the backgrounds of the plaques are filled with interesting treasures and trinkets, including, in the one in Plate VIII, an open drawer with a Buddhistic rosary inside. (15) This could be an indication that we are observing a devout, cultured woman in her private rooms. (16) The two mandarin ducks in the background, a symbol of marital fidelity, strengthen this interpretation. (17)