A large suspension oratory fully black lacquered wood with mother-of-pearl inlays and gilt decoration "Various animals among vegetation" stripes with secant circles, carved cornice and doors interior en bas-relief with gilt decoration, interior for placing a painting or a large sculpture, ebonized wood interior, doors interior with six oval reserves for paintings on copper or relics, inlaid iron mounts, red painted back Sino-Portuguese 17th C. (early) missing main painting or sculpture, missing reserves' paintings/relics, restoration, metallic reinforcements, fault on decoration, missing the central frieze of the doors and lock Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - (fechado) 94 x 66 x 9,5 cm; (aberto) 94 x 131 x 9,5 cm Notes: A large, rare and important portable oratory with two doors in lacquered (in black) and gilded wood, which once probably held a devotional painting now lost. Echoing the form of a Namban portable oratory, the present example, which was made using typically Chinese woodwork techniques, is intended to be hung on a wall, and was made for private devotion and used in Jesuit circles for missionary work in Asia. Apart from Namban lacquerware - a Japanese production made for export to the European market and which has been subject to more in-depth study and is somewhat easier to identify from the decorative repertoire and techniques used - other lacquer productions made under Portuguese commission have remained little studied. These so-called Luso-Asian lacquers, which have resisted consensual identification of their place of production among art historians, curators and conservators, are somewhat heterogeneous in character and may be divided into two groups - see Crespo 2016, cat. 22, pp. 238-61. While the first has been identified as Burmese in origin, the second is Chinese - see Crespo 2016, cat. 25, pp. 288-303. The second group, composed mainly of writing boxes, fall-front writing cabinets and also carved trays, larger shrines and portable oratories such as the present one, features, in general, a similar type of carved low-relief decoration, lacquered in black and highlighted in gold. Some of the surfaces, namely the interior of the writing boxes and cabinets are lacquered in red with gilded decoration of fauna and flora of typically Chinese repertoire.
The surface of the exterior sides of the present Namban-style lacquered Chinese portable oratory is decorated in gold leaf and mother-of-pearl inlays with typically Chinese floral and animal motifs. Over branches of Chinese plum or prunus mume (symbol of beauty, purity and longevity), overcharged with flowers, we may see long-tailed birds and large peacocks (the animal companion of the goddess of compassion, symbol of divinity, beauty, and rank), and a pair of tigers (symbolic of bravery and strength). The panels on the exterior sides are bordered by a typical Namban-style border, while the interior decoration of the doors is carved with oval medallions (which would originally intended held miniature devotional paintings or even small relics) framed by Mannerist-style cartouches over a vegetalist ground. Similarly carved, and originally gilded, is the pediment that crowns the oratory, featuring a large lotus-shaped rosette in the centre. Recent analysis of the materials (lacquer, oils, etc.) has identified the techniques employed in the manufacture of similar objects and reveals how the lacquer coating is combined with carved and gilded decoration, as seen in the stratigraphy of application or lacquer coating - see Körber, Schilling, Dias, and Dias, 2016. While the lacquer used was identified with the Toxicodendron succedaneum, known as laccol (which grows in Southern China, Vietnam and Japan) and typically used in South China, the Chinese techniques used, namely the gold leaf decoration (called tiē jīn qī) and the limited number of coatings and the materials typical of inferior quality lacquerware for export, strongly suggest a South Chinese origin for these pieces - on these traditional techniques, see Chang, and Schilling, 2016. A smaller, better preserved portable oratory of this type and decoration, albeit without any carved decoration, has been recently published - see Crespo, 2019, cat. 42, pp. 284-289; and Körber, 2019.

Bibliography:
Crespo, Hugo Miguel, Choices, Lisboa, AR-PAB, 2016; Crespo, Hugo Miguel (ed.), A Arte de Coleccionar. Lisboa, a Europa e o Mundo na Época Moderna (1500-1800). The Art of Collecting. Lisbon, Europe and the Early Modern (1500-1800), Lisboa, AR-PAB, 2019; Chang, Julie, e Schilling, Michael R., “Reconstructing lacquer technology through Chinese classical texts”, Studies in Conservation, 61, Supplement 3, 2016, pp. 38-44; Körber, Ulrike, Schilling, Michael R., Dias, Cristina Barrocas, e Dias, Luís, “Simplified Chinese lacquer techniques and Namban style decoration on Luso-Asian objects from the late sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries”, Studies in Conservation, 61, Supplement 3, 2016, pp. 68-84; Körber, Ulrike, “Um oratório portátátil lacado chinês de estilo Namban. A Namban-style Chinese lacquered portable oratory”, in Hugo Miguel Crespo (ed.), A Arte de Coleccionar. Lisboa, a Europa e o Mundo na Época Moderna (1500-1800). The Art of Collecting. Lisbon, Europe and the Early Modern (1500-1800), Lisboa, AR-PAB, 2019, pp. 290-293.

Hugo Miguel Crespo, March de 2022