Lacquer and japanning in seventeenth-century Flemish and Dutch paintings

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 2002 by Danielle Kisluk-Grosheide

Roestraeten devoted several of his still lifes to the popular pastime of drinking tea. In one of these works (Pl. XIV) a red Chinese stoneware teapot, five blue-and-white porcelain cups, and other accouterments are beautifully reflected in the lacquered table on which they are placed. The lustrous black lacquer surface is embellished with a pattern of foliage and birds. The shipping records of the Dutch East India Company listed lacquered tables but hardly any are known to have survived. (33) The paintings of Roestraeten remind us how appealing the exotic and lustrous lacquer surfaces could be, particularly when reflecting polished silver and translucent porcelain.

Although the artists in Antwerp were the first to depict works of lacquer in their paintings during the early seventeenth century their colleagues in the north soon followed their lead. As a result lacquered objects, mostly Japanese, but also those japanned in Europe appear in Dutch pictures more often than has previously been thought. (34) Some of these still lifes and genre scenes could be useful for dating export lacquerware, while others show early examples of japanning that have not survived. In a few instances the pieces can be compared to extant works of art, and occasionally they appear to be the product of the painter's imagination or the result of artistic license.

Although two-door comptoirs, or collector's cabinets, enclosing ten or more drawers were much sought after in the seventeenth century they are hardly ever seen in period paintings. A notable exception is an elegant interior scene of 1685 by Michiel van Musscher (1645-1705), showing such a Japanese lacquer cabinet on a stand in the background. (35) Most often illustrated, however, are lacquered boxes and coffers that seem to have been imported in larger quantities than any other lacquerware. (36)

(1.) Oliver Impey. "Namban: Japanese Export Lacquer for Portugal," in The World of Lacquer: 2000 years of History, ed. Pedro de Moura Carvalho (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, 2001), pp. 108-110. Impey lists examples of lacquer present in royal Portuguese and Spanish collections before 1600.

(2.) Ibid., p. 110, Fig. 4. The 1607-1611 inventory of Emperor Rudolph II (r. 1552-1612) listed a number of such Namban style cabinets. See Exotica: Portugals Entdeckunge im Spiegel furstlicher Kunst- und Wunderkammem der Renaissance, ed. Wilfried Seipel (Kunsthistorishes Museum, Vienna, and Skira, Milan, 2000), p.284, No. 218.

(3.) Oliver Impey "Japanese Export Lacquer," in Lacquer: An International History and Illustrated Survey (Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1984), p. 125.

(4.) The Dutch shared with the Chinese the privilege of trading with Japan. For the history of the Dutch trade in Japanese lacquer, see ibid., pp. 123-135. See also christiaan J. A. Jorg, "Japanese Export Lacquer: Trade and Imitation," in Imitation and Inspiration: Japanese Influence on Dutch Art, ed. Stefan van Raay (Art Unlimited Books, Amsterdam. 1989), pp. 40-46; and christiaan J. A. Jorg, "De handel van de V.O.C. in Oosters lakwerk in de 18de eeuw," Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, 1980, vol. 31(1981), pp.335-363.