Chinese porcelain in European painting is known from the 16th century, following the importation of Chinese porcelain

Chinese porcelain

Chinese ceramic ware shows a continuous development since the pre-dynastic periods, and is one of the most significant forms of Chinese art. China is richly endowed with the raw materials needed for making ceramics. The first types of ceramics were made during the Palaeolithic era...

 wares into Europe.

Italian precedents (15th–16th century)

In Italy, the first known depiction of Chinese porcelain bowls is from the The Feast of the Gods

The Feast of the Gods (Bellini)

The Feast of the Gods is an oil painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, with substantial additions by Titian, who added all the landscape to the left and centre. It is one of a cycle of paintings on mythological subjects produced for Alfonso I d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara, for...

 by Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna. He is considered to have revolutionized Venetian painting, moving it...

 (1514). The style of the bowls is that of the Ming dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

 blue and white porcelain type, maybe examples of which are known to have been exported in Persia, Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

 and Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

. The painting by Bellini was a request by Duke Alfonso I d'Este, who was known for his interest in Chinese porcelain. It seems that Bellini found samples of the Chinese ware not through trade, but among diplomatic gifts received by Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 from the Mamluke Sultans in 1498 (gift to Doge Barbarigo), and in 1498 and 1508 (gift to the Signoria

Signoria

A Signoria was an abstract noun meaning 'government; governing authority; de facto sovereignty; lordship in many of the Italian city states during the medieval and renaissance periods....

).

Some earlier examples are known though, although it is unclear if they are Chinese or Islamic prototypes, as in the Madonna and Child by Francesco Benaglio

Francesco Benaglio

Francesco Benaglio was an Italian of the Renaissance period, active in his native Verona. He was trained by his relative, Girolamo Benaglio, and painted a fresco at Santa Maria della Scala in 1476....

 (1460–70), or the Adoration of the Magi by Andrea Mantegna

Andrea Mantegna

Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son in law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g., by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality...

 (1495–1505).

Rest of Europe (17th–18th century)

In the 16th century, numerous other painters would use Chinese porcelain in their paintings, especially Dutch ones. This trend was related to the direct importation of Chinese porcelain to Europe, through what is known as "Carrak" trade, hence the name Kraak porcelain

Kraak porcelain

Kraak porcelain is a type of Chinese export porcelain produced mainly from the Wanli reign until around 1640. It was among the first Chinese export ware to arrive in Europe in mass quantities, and was frequently featured in Dutch still life paintings of foreign luxuries, as in the one by Jan...

.

French painters, such as François Desportes, also represented Chinese bowls in their still-life paintings. Some like Jacques Linard in 1627 even painstainkingly reproduced Chinese writing, in Les cinq sens et les quatre éléments, 1627.

This artistic trend coinciding with the fashion for Chinese porcelain in Europe in the 17th–18th century, which led to the development of a local porcelain industry initially highly imitative of Chinese wares, as seen in French porcelain

French porcelain

French porcelain has a history spanning a period from the 17th century to the present.-Soft-paste blue-and-white porcelain:Chinese porcelain had long been imported from China, and was a very expensive and desired luxury...

.