expression used to name the artistic production made, mainly between the 16th and the 17th centuries, as a result of the relationship established between Portugal and China. During this period, Portugal was the main commercial partner and intermediary between the Celestial Empire and the West. Conceived by the Chinese from Portuguese commissions or instructions, this manufacture is a cultural and artistic synthesis. Its main characteristics are the intertwining of Chinese and Portuguese (Western) referents, which may manifest themselves, cumulatively or not, in the material aspects, the technical procedures used, the iconography and the plastic, chromatic and functional approach chosen.
Sino-Portuguese art comprehends works of both religious and profane nature. The first ones were destined to catholic worship, and complemented the efforts of evangelization started by the Portuguese Patronage of the East. The second ones were meant for European civilians, especially Portuguese speaking ones, living in overseas cities under Portuguese control or in the metropolis itself. These were mostly pieces for the decoration of public places and private houses.
From the historiographical point of view, although the expression Sino-Portuguese is part of a title of a 1934 work on the commercial relationships between China and Portugal, its genesis, in artistic terms, took place later. It was created in the 1960's as a result of Bernardo Ferrão's subdivision of the originally much wider concept of Indo-Portuguese*. Currently, there is a void in what regards the contextualization, characterization or attribution of this expression. On the one hand, few studies duly developed about the kind of artistic production that can be called Sino-Portuguese have been made, although researches have recently paid more attention to some areas, like ivories, furniture, textiles and ceramics; on the other hand not many efforts have been made to define or study in a systematic way the implications of this expression, and clearly determine its meaning as a well-founded adjective. The existence of a Sino-Portuguese production is nevertheless undeniable, at least on what concerns porcelain, particularly the one decorated with Portuguese heraldic emblems or with the arms of some religious orders serving the ecclesiastic patronage, and textile, namely embroidered liturgical garments, both well represented in the patrimony still existing in Portugal. This contradicts Rafael Moreira's remarks according to which "ao contrário de Goa e dos centros maiores do Índico Ocidental (...), aqui [Macau] não se desenvolveu nenhuma escola ou estilo artístico próprio baseado no hibridismo de formas luso-orientais, como o indo-português, o cingalo-português ou o luso-persa." [unlike Goa and the major centres of the Western Indian Ocean region (
), here [in Macau] no specific school or artistic style based on the hybrid Luso-oriental shapes, such as Indo-Portuguese, Cingalo-Portuguese or Luso-Persian have been developed." (Moreira, 1998, p. 453). A more persistent and global reflection has nonetheless to be made, for instance about the location of the manufacturing centres and the people responsible for them. Although Fernando António Baptista Pereira (Pereira, 1998, p. 167) intends to circumscribe Sino-Portuguese art to the one produced in Macau, production from outside this region should also be taken into account, from Guangzhou or other small villages in provinces of the southern part of China for instance, which were fully involved in business with the Portuguese.
Bibliography:
CHANG, Tien-Tsê, O Comércio Sino-português entre 1514 e 1644: Uma síntese de fontes portuguesas e chinesas, Macau, Instituto Português do Oriente, 1997. FERREIRA, Maria João Pacheco, As Alfaias Bordadas Sinoportuguesas Datáveis dos Séculos XVI a XVIII. Contextualização. Caracterização. Análise, Lisboa, Universidade Lusíada, 2007. FERREIRA, Maria João Pacheco, "O Conceito sinoportuguês. Problemáticas inerentes ao seu surgimento, identidade e aplicação" in Lusíada. Arqueologia, História da Arte e Património, Lisboa, Universidade Lusíada Editora, 2004, nº 2/4, pp. 139-151. MOREIRA, Rafael, "As Formas Artísticas", in A.H. de Oliveira MARQUES, (dir. de), História dos Portugueses no Extremo Oriente - De Macau à Periferia, 1º vol., tomo I, Lisboa, Fundação Oriente, 1998. Oceanos - Indo-Portuguesmente, Lisboa, 1994, nº19/20 - Setembro/ Dezembro. PEREIRA, Fernando António Baptista ,"A Arquitectura "Chã" e a Ornamentação Interior nas Igrejas Portuguesas do Oriente (séculos XVII-XVIII)", in Mafalda Soares da CUNHA, (coord. de), Os Construtores do Oriente Português, Lisboa, Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, 1998, pp. 167-193. TÁVORA, Bernardo Ferrão Tavares e, A Imaginária Luso-oriental, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional - Casa da Moeda, 1983.
Translated by: Dominique Faria.