Figurative ashlar with chinoiseries

The portuguese azulejos portraying the Chinoiserie theme are coeval of the Rocaille aesthetic , as it happens, moreover, in Europe. However it will continue up to the advent of the Neoclassic, the later already a specific aspect of the national geographic-artistic space. This close contact is not surprising, since many of the designs that served as the groundwork for both styles or themes have been designed by the same artists, as François Boucher (1703-1770) or Jean Pillement (1728-1808), to name just a few of those whose works were somewhat directly relevant for the portuguese azulejo. It is precisely from drawings of Boucher thet Gabriel Huquier, son (1730-1805) engraves twelve prints he would name Scènes de la vie chinoise, around 1742. These themes strongly impacted the azulejo production in Lisbon from the last quarter of the 18th century, and were employed somewhat freely on several known sets. This azulejo work, probably from the decades of 1740-1750, uses solely the colour blue, wheter on the themes or on the frame simulating woodcarving. His set is somehow close to the manufacture of the famous tapestries of Beauvais which, from 1742, starts making pieces from drwings of Boucher which were decisive in the expansion for the taste of the chinoiserie. In it were used two of the prints of Arnoldus Montanus, of 1669: Costumes of Japonese Ladies and A Japonese Noble Man. Some elements taken from the prints of Montanus works can be found in the aforementioned taspestries of Beauvais through the cartoons of François Boucher - thus associating the azulejos to a more real everyday life than the usual (more idilical) way of representing the oriental world.