| 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.
From the Renaissance to the eighteenth 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.
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.
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.
Later exoticisms added imaginary Turkish themes, where a "diwan" became a sofa. (See Sezincote, Gloucestershire.) 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.
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