497.
SAUCER DISH
PORCELAIN DECORATED IN POLYCHROME ENAMELS
QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795),
CA. 1741-1752
ARMS: RIBEIRO, ÉVORA, FIGUEIREDO, FONSECA
HEIGHT 3.3 CM; RIM DIAMETER 25.5 CM
INV. NO. 105
Circular saucer dish with convex centre,
rounded cavetto and everted, four lobed,
lipped rim, outlined by two raised lines below
the rim. Indented corners between the lobes
and the barbed points of the lobes
protruding onto the rim, and concave base.
Heavily potted in thick, white porcelain, and
coated with a slightly greyish glaze, except
for the base which burned an orange colour
in the firing. The edge of the glaze is marked
by adhesions of kiln ash.
The dish is decorated in polychrome enamels:
blue, iron red, green, yellow and pink. In the
centre, the arms of Brother Dom José Maria
da Fonseca e Évora, known by the secular
name of José Maria Ribeiro da Fonseca
Figueiredo e Sousa: on a baroque cartouche
Or, in fanciful format a shield party per pale:
I – quarterly: 1st gules, two pales Or; 2nd
gules, three bars vairy argent and ?; 3rd
argent, three bars, those in chief and in base
gules charged with an upper case E Or in the
centre, the middle bar azure, a knot Or; 4th
gules, five figleaves vert. II – Or, five mullets
of five points gules. Above the shield, two
arms in saltire, one vested and one bare,
placed on the horizontal arm of a Latin cross
Or. Crest: episcopal hat with pendent cord
and six tassels per side, placed 1, 2, 3, all
vert. 1 The arms are enclosed by arabesques
and stylized flowers in a lozenge-shaped
formation, a motif which is repeated on the
cavetto. The rim is accentuated by the three
raised lines painted in iron red, green and
yellow enamels.
The correct description of these arms is: per
pale: I, quarterly – Ribeiro – only the two
first quarters with arms of this name:
1st – Or, three pales gules; 2nd sable, three
bars vairy argent and gules; 2 3rd – Évora (a
surname not found in any known Portuguese
blazonry); 4th – Figueiredo – gules, five
figleaves vert, ribbed and fimbriated Or. 3
II – Fonseca – Or, five mullets of seven
points gules. 4 Above the shield, the emblem
of the Order of St. Francis. Crest: the insignia
of the episcopal dignity, an ecclesiastical hat
with a cord pendent and six tassels per side,
placed 1, 2, 3, all vert.
D. José Maria da Fonseca e Évora (Fig. 91) was
born in Évora on 3 December 1690. He was
the son of Manuel Ribeiro da Fonseca
Figueiredo, who served the House of Austria
in Milan and Flanders, and of Ana Maria
Barros da Gama Michão.
204 .
ARMORIAL CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN
Figure 91. Bust of D. José da Fonseca e Évora
Marble, ca. 1740, 60 x 28 cm
© Fundação da Casa de Bragança, Inv. PDVV
1661
Photograph J. Real Andrade / FCB
Master of Arts from the University of Évora
and doctor in Canon Law at the University of
Coimbra, he accompanied the third Marquis
of Fontes to Rome on an embassy to the
Pope in 1712. In Rome, where he lived for
twenty-eight years, he completed his
novitiate in the Convent of St. Bernardino da
Orta, made his solemn profession on 8
December 1712 (after the fulfilment of a
promise) in the Convent of Aracoeli, taking
the name of Brother José Maria da Fonseca
d’Évora. In this convent he founded an
impressive library of around 20,000 volumes,
known as the Eborense Library, in memory of
his native city. Its contents were dispersed
Figure 92.
Fonseca Bust
Marble, early 2nd century, 63 cm
Donated by Father Fonseca to Pope Benedict XIV
Rome, Musei Capitolini, Inv. MC 434/S