Chinese porcelain for a Spanish queen: Thousands of pieces and two inventories of Elisabeth Farnese
image: JINGDEZHEN PORCELAIN 'SOLDIER/ DRAGOON VASE' FROM THE QIANLONG PERIOD (1735–1795), which continues to preside over the official banquets of the Kings of Spain today. H: 130 cm.
Credit: PATRIMONIO NACIONAL (SPANISH NATIONAL HERITAGE).
Chinese porcelain stood at the centre of elite European collecting long before local factories could make true porcelain. In Bourbon Spain, Queen Elisabeth Farnese (1692-1766) turned this fascination into a coherent courtly programme that combined diplomacy, dynastic inheritance and interior design. In a new article published in KeAi's Journal of International Ceramic Studies, art historian Cinta Krahe from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid examines how the queen assembled and displayed one of Europe's most ambitious East Asian porcelain holdings, especially at her favourite residence, the palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso.
The study is grounded in two key household inventories, compiled in 1746 and 1766, which record porcelain room-by-room—allowing the collection to be reconstructed even after later losses. Krahe notes that Elisabeth Farnese "assembled one of the most significant collections of Chinese and Japanese porcelain in Europe, numbering around 3000 pieces."
Notably, the collection included Dehua Blanc-de-Chine figures, Japanese porcelain figures, lacquer panels and mirror cabinets, porcelain placed on Rococo console tables, and large Jingdezhen 'soldier vases' on pedestals.
The study also tracks how objects entered the Spanish royal collection through multiple channels: inherited groups from the Spanish Habsburgs and the Farnese line, purchases in Paris, and diplomatic gift exchange, including shipments associated with Siamese and Philippine contacts and Jesuit missionary networks. It shows how architects such as Santiago Bonavia and Filippo Juvarra helped translate the chinoiserie aesthetic into Spanish palatial interiors, creating porcelain rooms in which ceramics, lacquer and paintings worked together as a single display language.
Only a small fraction of the original holdings remains in situ today: political upheavals, foreign invasions and, most dramatically, the 1918 fire contributed to dispersal and loss. Nevertheless, key surviving pieces can still be seen at La Granja de San Ildefonso, while additional highlights are now presented in Madrid's Museum of the Royal Collections.
Krahe's case study clarifies how Chinese porcelain helped define courtly identity and the material culture of cross-cultural exchange in eighteenth-century Spain.
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Contact the author: Cinta Krahe, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, C/Francisco Tomás y Valiente nº.1, Madrid 28049, Spain, Email: cinta.krahe@uam.es
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