This tea bowl and saucer are decorated with the figure of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The portrait is derived from an engraving by Schelte a Bolswert, after a painting by Peter Paul Rubens. Ignatius (1491–1556) was born in Loyola, in the Basque country of Spain, and died in Rome. He established the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits, in 1534. He was canonized in 1622, and his attributes are the Eucharist, chasuble, book, and cross. Chinese export porcelain like this with black enamel became popular around 1740. European missionaries and patrons commissioned works from Chinese potters, sending engraved bookplates or European prints as models. These were then copied in black enamel onto the porcelain.
