Oct 26, 2008 8:42 am US/Eastern
CBS 2 At The Met: European Porcelain
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
If you're passionate about porcelain, you don't want to miss this exhibition of European porcelain created between 1800 and 1850. Back then these objects were made in three major centers, called manufactories, Berlin, Vienna, and Sevres, that's just outside Paris.
No ordinary factories, they were owned by three different monarchs. The seventy-five porcelain plates, vases and decorative arts on display were created for the royal set and their friends only. Now privately owned, it's known as the Twinight Collection.
Curator Jeffrey Munger explains porcelain's appeal to CBS2's Dana Tyler.
"This is a great moment great technological advances but before mass production it can truly be called the Golden Age of European production able to do all sorts of things because of new kiln technologies, new enamel colors they could paint with precision and details not possible before."
You'll see details in a 1838 vase, a birthday gift from the Prussian Court to Crown Prince Maximilian the Second of Bavaria.
Munger says, "It shows eight different views of Berlin, eight new buildings. It's comparable to us showing the Time Warner Center or the new Museum of Arts Design. The artists wanted to show off new buildings in Berlin. This would have been cutting edge decorative arts at the time."
Cameos were all the rage in the early 19th Century. As you'll see in a five-piece dinner setting produced at the Sevre factory in 1817. These dishes weren't showpieces, they really were used on special occasions. Munger explains, "The predominate art style at this time was Neo Classism. Everyone looked to Ancient Greek and Rome for inspiration. Here they're trying to simulate Cameos hardstones carved, it was a major luxury art."
Curator Munger points out his favorite thing to Tyler. "If there's one object I would take home with me, which of course I can't, it's this desk set produced in Vienna in 1826.
Because it's just so superbly painted. It's painted with an incredible level of detail. One of the castles in Vienna . These parts of the desk set, the inkwell, and pot are cubes. Also provide the ideal surface of showing as many views of Vienna as possible
Artistry, on a small scale, yet big on details.
"Royal Porcelain from the Twinight Collection, 1800 to 1850," on display at the Met until next August.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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