New Portico Gallery Opens with Selections of Meissen Porcelain from Henry H. Arnhold's Promised Gift and Two Sculptures by Houdon
December 13, 2011, through January 6, 2013
Chinoiserie-Style Porcelain
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Teapot, Meissen porcelain, c.1729–31, The Arnhold Collection, photograph: Maggie Nimkin |
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The chinoiserie style popular in Europe in the eighteenth century was
a response to the regular arrival of shiploads of porcelain, lacquerwork,
and textiles from the Far East as well as the publication of illustrated
travel books on China and Japan.
In the late 1720s and 1730s, the
Meissen factory, under the talented painter Johann Gregorius Höroldt
(c. 1696–1775), produced colorful and highly decorative wares. While
chinoiserie scenes were often derived from Asian woodblock prints, travel
book illustrations, and countless European pattern books with Chinese-inspired
subjects, the Asian porcelains amassed by Augustus the Strong
were also important design resources themselves. They provided the
models for the teapot with waves and goldfish in reliefs (above) and for the
charming group of a Chinese man offering a berry to a large exotic bird (below).
Mounted Meissen Group, Meissen porcelain, c. 1728–30, Model attributed to George Fritzsche (c. 1697–1756), gilt-bronze mounts, probably French, The Arnhold Collection, photograph: Michael Bodycomb |
