Europe-China-Europe: The Transmission of the Craft of Painted Enamel in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Abstract

The craft of enamelling originated in Europe. 1 The technique of cloisonné enamel, which can be traced back to the Mycenaean culture, flourished in Byzantium from the middle of the ninth century to 1204, with Constantinople at its centre. Cloisonné was also crafted in the areas surrounding Constantinople (and continued after the extinction of the empire), in places such as Kiev, Georgia, Venice and Iran. The Celts had utilized the champlevé enamel technique on copper long before Rome conquered Western Europe, and it is found …