Chinoiserie

Chinoiserie refers to an artistic style which reflects Chinese influence and is characterized through the use of elaborate decoration and intricate patterns. Its popularity peaked around the middle of the 18th century.

Related Topics:
Artistic style - Chinese - Patterns - 18th century

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From the Renaissance to the 18th century Western designers attempted to imitate the technical sophistication of Chinese ceramics with only partial success. Direct imitation of Chinese designs began in the late 17th century and peaking in waves, especially Rococo Chinoiserie, ca 1740-1770. Earliest hints of Chinoiserie appear, in the early 17th century, in the nations with active East India Companies, Holland and England, then by mid-17th century, Portugal. Tin-glazed pottery made at Delft and other Dutch towns adopted genuine blue-and-white Ming decoration from the early 17th century, and early ceramic wares at Meissen and other centers of true porcelain naturally imitated Chinese shapes for dishes, vases and tea wares. But in the true Chinoiserie décor fairyland, mandarins lived in fanciful mountainous landscapes with cobweb bridges, carried flower parasols, lolled in flimsy bamboo pavilions haunted by dragons and phoenixes, while monkeys swung from scrolling borders.

Related Topics:
Renaissance - Chinese ceramics - Rococo - East India Companies - Meissen

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Pleasure pavilions in "Chinese taste" appeared in the formal parterres of late Baroque and Rococo German palaces, and in tile panels at Aranjuez near Madrid. Thomas Chippendale's mahogany tea tables and china cabinets, especially, were embellished with fretwork glazing and railings, ca 1753 - 70, but sober homages to early Xing scholars' furnishings were also naturalized, as the tang evolved into a mid-Georgian side table and squared slat-back armchairs suited English gentlemen as well as Chinese scholars. Not every adaptation of Chinese design principles falls within mainstream "chinoiserie." Chinoiserie media included "japanned" ware imitations of lacquer and painted tin (tôle) ware that imitated japanning, early painted wallpapers in sheets, and ceramic figurines and table ornaments.

Related Topics:
Aranjuez - Madrid - Thomas Chippendale

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Small pagodas appeared on chimneypieces and full-sized ones in gardens. Kew has a magnificent garden pagoda designed by Sir William Chambers. Though the rise of a more serious approach in Neoclassicism from the 1770s onward tended to squelch such Oriental folly, at the height of Regency "Grecian" furnishings, the Prince Regent came down with a case of Brighton Pavilion, and Chamberlain's Worcester china manufactory imitated gaudy "Imari" wares. Upscale houses, like the Casa Loma, sometimes feature an entire guest room decorated in the chinoiserie style, complete with Chinese-styled bed, phoenix-themed wallpaper, and china.

Related Topics:
Pagoda - Kew - William Chambers - Neoclassicism - Prince Regent - Brighton Pavilion - China - Imari - Casa Loma - Phoenix - China

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Later exoticisms added imaginary Turkish themes, where a "diwan" became a sofa. (See Sezincote, Gloucestershire.)

Related Topics:
"diwan" - Sofa - Sezincote

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The term is also used in literary criticism to describe a mannered "Chinese-esqe" style of writing, such as that employed by Ernest Bramah in his Kai Lung stories.

Related Topics:
Ernest Bramah - Kai Lung

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