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West and east as themes in early Meissen porcelain

On October 2, the State Hermitage Museum opened an exhibition project ╚The World of the West and Myths of the East. West and East as Themes in Early Meissen Porcelain╩. This exhibition and the exhibition ╚Max Beckmann. Works from Museum and Private Collections of Hamburg and Lubeck╩ opened in the Hermitage at the same day are intended to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the brother city relationship between Hamburg and Saint Petersburg.

European culture created its own unforgettable image of the East in each historical period. In the XVII ≈ XVIII centuries a serious interest developed in China. The interest was the basis for the myth of the Heavenly Empire. This fashion took shape in Western art in the airy fine schinoiserie style. ╚The Chinese Empire has become an object of special interest, study, reflection and total arguments nowadays. Missionaries were the first to arise a public interest telling about the wonders of this distant country,╩ wrote the famous French litterateur Friedrich Melchior Grimm in 1766.

Clock in a porcelain case. About 1727. Painting by Horold workshop. Porcelain, overglaze painting, gilding, bronze, gold, silver, diamonds. Height 37,0. The Hermitage Museum [zoom (40k)]

The exhibition ╚West and East as Themes in Early Meissen Porcelain╩ is situated in the Blue Bedroom of the Winter Palace ╚whose dйcor and interior excellently suit to display porcelain articles, ╩ M.B. Piotrovsky indicated at the opening ceremony. 85 exponents from the extraordinarily rich collection of Meissen porcelain belonging to the State Hermitage Museum demonstrate the West▓s interest in the allure Far East.

The Europeans are considered to see the Chinese porcelain for the first time after the famous Venetian Marco Polo▓s (1271/75√1292/95) travel to the Heavenly Empire. Porcelain was known in Europe before that but as it was delivered by caravan tracks through Asia the exact place of its manufacture was not known. Porcelain articles were always valued for texture homogeny, semi-transparence of a ceramic body and purity of a colour compared at times with semi-precious stones. Porcelain was told to have extraordinary powers (for example, to it was said that porcelain could find poison in food).

Rich people asked alchemists to study out the composition of the material. But at the outset all the efforts were vain. It is known that many scientists often told that they had solved the secret of porcelain having achieved some results. But the gotten materials copied porcelain only in outward appearance. In the XVI century Italian cities Ferrara, Turin and Pesaro competed to be the first to find out the formula.

Only in 1575 in Florence they got the first results. Francesco I de▓Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, organized a manufactory in Boboli gardens. They used kaolin, main ingredient of the Eastern porcelain, to make their items. Unfortunately the Florentines did not guess the value of their invention. The manufacture existed for fifty years and the items made there are cultural and historical values nowadays. The interest to porcelain continued to grow but the Europeans contented to use ceramic products made mainly in Delft, Holland. Besides, Holland started acting as the biggest importer of the eastern porcelain. In the beginning of the XVII century masters from Never, France began to copy Chinese forms and motifs using them in their local traditional works ≈ maiolica.

The first manufacture to produce hard paste porcelain was founded on January 23, 1710 in Dresden. The decree for its establishment was signed by Elector Friedrick Augustus I (later King Augustus II of Poland in 1697, also known as Augustus the Strong). In June 1710 the enterprise was transferred to Albrechtsburg Castle in Meissen. Johann Friedrich Bottger is considered to be an inventor of European hard porcelain. The invention was treated in the West as a clue to one of the treasured secrets of the East. As it was proved later Meissen porcelain is harder than the Chinese one first of all because of the bigger content of kaolin (white refractory clay), porcelain main ingredient. The secret of porcelain making was kept private but it was of no use and in 1719 the second porcelain manufacture was opened in Vienna.

All the exhibited articles correspond to the period 1710√1745 that was a hard one for Meissen manufacture. Meissen was occupied by forces under Fredrick II of Prussia during the Second Silesian War. In the first half of the XVIII century the main focus of the creative quest of the porcelain masters at the Meissen factory was creating their individual impression of the Eastern Culture. Of course, this impression remained beyond the grasp of their interpretations and therefore the Western theme was invariably present; sometimes invisibly, sometimes quite visible. The exhibition has been formed by the desire to define the boundaries of this presence. The first section of the exhibition (that has 6 sections total) deals with Bottger brown stoneware. This ceramic composition was the first one that could be compared to its Eastern analogues. The exhibits made of Bottger Stoneware ≈ that represent the earliest group of the exhibits ≈ have both Western and Oriental stylistic features. It▓s worth mentioning two water bottles without lids (1710√1715) painted with enamel paints and gilding. These items copy ╚pilgrim water bottle╩ known from Middle Ages. In those days such vessels were functional and made of leather, clay and metal. After the cancellation of Edict of Nantes French Huguenot masters settled in Europe and made the model known for Dutch, German and English jewelers. In the end of the XVIII century bottles of such a form started being used as liqueur bottles.

Service for chocolate on a stand. Painting by A. Seuter. About 1715. Porcelain, gold painting, silver; cast, embossing, carving, gold plating. The Hermitage Museum [zoom (45k)]

The second section deals with Bottger porcelain works with gilding in chinoiserie style. In the 1720√1730-ies Meissen porcelain was often signed with gold or silver in Augsburg, a long way from Saxony. Augsburg independent painters gave life to the unusual genre of porcelain painting named ╚Golden Chinese╩. The vogue of ╚all the Chinese╩ developed within the context of the baroque style in the XVII century, while the XVIII century saw the influence of the rococo. ╚Golden Chinese╩ on Meissen porcelain demonstrated an original variant of German iconography in chinoiserie style. Chocolate Service on a Silver Stander Plate (1720√1724) meets the eye. It consists of 24 items: porcelain coffee pot, six porcelain cups with silver lids, silver plate, three big silver spoons and six little spoons. The set was compounded of stylistically harmonious items made by different masters at different times ≈ that was a usual practice of those days.

Meissen items with multicolour enamel painting in chinoiserie style created in the art workshop of Johann Gregorius Horoldt, painter and manufacturing technician (1696√1775) are exhibited separately. Many of the painters of the workshop had their own individual style. Horoldt himself combined artistic virtuosity with almost impressionist landscapes. One of the most interesting exhibits is a clock in a porcelain case decorated with overglazes, gold, silver and diamonds. The porcelain clock among other rare and high-priced porcelain articles was given to the great princess Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Peter I and Catherine I, by Augustus II the Strong. The painting was made by masters of Horoldt▓s workshop. The pictorial composition with a horseman in a central lower lambrequin attracts visitor▓s attention. Besides, visitors could see porcelain items painted in harbour scenes. One should mention a collection of Meissen painters▓ imitations of Chinese and Japan porcelain. Usually China was presented by blue overglazes in cobalt and pictorial mixture of rose and green. To imitate Japanese style Meissen masters painted them in ╚imari╩ and ╚kakiemon╩ styles. The exhibition presents, for example, Meissen items in ╚kakiemon╩ style destined for Saxon court ≈ Augustus II Strong, count Alexander Joseph Sulovsky and count Henrich von Brьhl. Surely the organizers could not but display items of famous services made for the Russian court and kept in the Hermitage Museum. Despite the fact that the items refer to the period of fading of Meissen masters▓ interest to the Oriental theme (1740√1745) one could see a certain east touch. The plate from the first ╚Elizabethan service╩ has an eastern landscape in chinoiserie style with palm-trees and characteristic Chinese building with cocked verges.

A plate from the famous ╚Andreevskii service╩ ≈ that was given to the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna by Augustus III in 1745 on the occasion of the wedding of the Grand Duke Piotr Fiodorovich (the future Emperor Peter III) an princess Sophia Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst (the future Empress Catherine II) ≈ seems as if to end the Eastern history in the Western porcelain artworks. The items of the service are as early as decorated with ╚German flowers╩ but the flowers convey the admiration of the richness and variety of the outworld that is characteristic for eastern art traditions.

The exhibition will take place up to January, 13.