Day 198 - Meissen porcelain dancers


November 11, 2019

Gallery 538 contains several display cases of 18th-crntury  statuettes and other small objects of porcelain, mostly from what is now Germany but also from Sevres, Capodimonte, and Saint Petersburg. A few items have religious themes, but most are secular: hunters, dancers, numerous Harlequins and Columbines, and so on. A number, too, show Chinese characters and Moors. It would be easy to characterize these merely as representing Europeans' fanciful, stereotyped views of people from other cultures, and they do. But I think they also give evidence of a burgeoning curiosity about the wider world. Most of the objects are purely decorative in nature. But I'm struck by a rather silly pair of women wearing rounded hats and sitting astride roosters. made in Meissen. They turn out to be oil or vinegar cruets. Presumably, the hats could be removed to pour in the liquids, the roosters' open beaks served as pouring spouts, and their curving tails provided handles for holding the implements. 

Today's object is a hard-paste porcelain statuette, only about 5 inches high.  Made in Meissen around 1735, it shows a pair of peasant dancers who, their left arms linked, circle each other in a swirling dance.  Both the man and the woman have one leg extended behind them- a position that, I imagine, was intended to show the skill of the modeler, one Johann Friedrich Eberlein, in creating such delicately balanced figures. The woman's dress, in pastel hues of cream, violet, and mint green, floats out behind her; its sweet pastels are set off by the bright red of the man's jacket. She has bright yellow bows on her sleeves, he a yellow bow (or is it a flower? ) on his hat. This helps unify the composition, and it also reinforces the sense of coupled-ness. I think I like this  statuette so much because, while it is relatively simple compared with many of the multi-figured statuettes on display, the dancers seem to be having a lot of fun. 

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