ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys the phenomenon of the ‘porcelain room’ in early modern Europe and briefly considers its revival in museum installations and contemporary art. Popular from around 1660 to 1760, European porcelain rooms were inspired in part by Timurid, Safavid and Mughal prototypes and first emerged in Portugal and the Netherlands, the two powers that dominated maritime trade with Asia during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Featuring hundreds or even thousands of pieces of Asian (and later European) porcelain on the walls and ceiling, often surrounded by gleaming lacquer, mirrors and gilding, such immersive interiors were used by courtly patrons to convey power, sophistication and global trading connections, while they also reveal latent histories of slavery and colonialism.
