CHINESE PORNOGRAPHY IN A PORTUGUESE NUNNERY: ON A TRANSITIONAL PERIOD BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN BOWL RECOVERED FROM THE SANTANA CONVENT (LISBON)

Abstract

This paper discusses a rare Late Ming blue and white porcelain bowl with five cartouches depicting scenes of sexual intercourse, which was found during archaeological excavations in the Santana convent, a former Franciscan nunnery located in Lisbon founded in 1562. The paper begins with a description of the bowl, the context of its recovery and its significance, highlighting its extreme rarity among Chinese export porcelains. The second section discusses Chinese sexuality and the production of erotica during the Late Ming period, namely porcelains with erotic and sexual imagery, a subject that has been overlooked by mainstream scholarship. The last section proposes an explanation for the presence of this bowl in the Santana nunnery, emphasising the gap between the ideals of Iberian Catholic monastic life and the worldly practices conducted by the members of these religious orders in the Baroque era.